


Antique boy

by crimson_calamity



Category: GOT7
Genre: Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Angst, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-15
Updated: 2018-02-05
Packaged: 2019-03-05 06:17:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 28,029
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13381905
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crimson_calamity/pseuds/crimson_calamity
Summary: As much as he may wish otherwise, Lanzhou Station is Jaebum's entire universe, his struggling shop his entire life. He's not like Jinyoung, a solicitor with clients across the system, or Jackson, an archaeologist currently planetside excavating an ancient ruin, or Mark, a scavenger with his own ship who crosses light years to see incredible things and find wonderful artefacts but who somehow always finds time to come back and visit, bringing amazing tales and far too extravagant gifts back with him.But Jaebum's nothing like that and probably never will be, but then in the grand scheme of the whole universe, maybe that's okay.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is very heavily influenced by two utterly incredible books called "the long way to a small angry planet" and the sequel "a closed and common orbit", both by Becky Chambers; I very highly recommend both, they're just wonderful sci-fi books with lovely characters and great stories and an utterly breathtaking universe and I could gush about them for weeks, so please if u like this at all, go read those books (you dont need to read them to understand this however :D)!! I don't do the style any justice, but I just had this in my head and I've used some of that universe's terminology like 'tenday' and 'standard' here, but the aliens and stuff and story are all from me <3 That being said, this story is one I've had finished for ages and i'm actually incredibly proud of it?? it's (in my own humble opinion lmao) sweet and soft and sad in places but overall happy, so I really hope you enjoy it lads <3

Jaebum yawns as he stands, pulling off his gloves and throwing them next to the burnished statuette he had been polishing, setting his glasses down next to them. It's getting towards night-cycle - darkening simulated skies means that he's able to close up shop and head to bed. Well, not yet to bed, but he can keep working in the back without having to worry about anyone coming in.

There's no one in the front when he makes his way through the bead curtain, the tiny Maralian crystals clinking together with their characteristic chimes, but then he already knew that, what with the lack of buzzing from his bracelet. Picking his way around cluttered shelves and bins of knick-knacks and antiques, he digs his keys out from his pocket and locks the door when he reaches it; old habits die hard, despite Jackson's constant reminders that he uses a laser shutter as well so really doesn't need to use that old Terran style lock any more. Whatever, he thinks, running his thumb over the scratched metal, it's not Jackson's decision and he's too busy off with his fancy planetside excavation to manage a video call once per tenday, let alone complain about Jaebum's sentimentality for a home that was never his.

He's halfway to the back room, bent over to pick up some old fuses and wires someone had pulled out of their box and strewn across the floor, when someone raps on the door, three times in quick succession. He doesn't move for a moment, heaves a sigh as he throws the wires haphazardly back onto the shelf, then stands, peering suspiciously out the window, expecting to have to tell some impatient looking scavenger or clearly shifty thief looking for a fence - which he's _not_ , by the way - that the shop's closed, that's what the _locked door_ means, but that's not who he sees at all.

Mark waves at him and points at the door, a cheeky grin showing all his teeth and curving his eyes up. Jaebum's stunned still at the sight of him; he's got a new coat, what looks like an old Terran-style biker jacket made of dark sun-worn leather and his hair's brown again after a brief stint as a blond.

"Hey there station boy." He says when Jaebum opens the door again, which makes the exasperation more natural; Jaebum narrows his eyes as he steps aside to let Mark in.

"How many times have I told you not to call me that?" He grumbles, tapping his bracelet to flick the lights back on. Mark laughs, stepping around a basket of ventilator filters.

"I'll stop calling you that when you finally leave the station." He teases, the same thing he says every time. Jaebum shakes his head, tries to look disgruntled to cover up the sinking feeling in his chest and follows him to the counter. When he reaches it, Mark unslings the bag from his shoulder, setting it down with a heavy clunk. With a sigh Jaebum nudges aside a bowl of Vleic wishing stones and leans on the countertop with both hands, waiting for the first of Mark's haul. It's usually pretty impressive, but he supposes that comes with the territory of scavenger.

The first thing to come out of the bag is a jar, maybe twenty centimetres tall and about seven in diameter, with worn carvings and the remnants of colour on the sides. Jaebum winces as Mark carelessly passes it to him, gingerly holding it by the base and top to avoid damaging the decorations anymore than they already are; from what's still recognisable, it seems to be Erdiean, possibly made for someone quite important given the amount of red and yellow paint left and, sure enough, there's a matriarchal stamp on the bottom. It's a good piece, decent quality and Jaebum knows a collector who'd probably pay well for it - she's from a very old - and very rich - matriarchal family, trying to build up a library of Erdiean artefacts to hopefully open a museum sometime soon. When he tells Mark the likely value, he scoffs, flicks some non-existent dust off the shoulder of his jacket.

"Of course." He winks when Jaebum rolls his eyes. Pot safely stashed under the counter, he waits expectantly for the next of Mark's trinkets. Most are fairly standard, run of the mill junk tech old enough to be sold as antiques, a handful of assorted coins, some rough chunks of crystal - he shrugs sheepishly, saying they were shiny and caught his eye - and a couple of small expertly carved statuettes, likely from some ancient dead religion, he'd have to look it up. They're something about which Jackson would probably know and be very interested if he ever bothered to _call_ , but alas, he's too busy with his interesting job _planetside_.

The last thing to come out of the bag is a small cube wrapped in dark blue cloth; Jaebum holds his hand out for it, but Mark cradles it protectively to his chest.

"This one's not for sale, okay?" He smiles sunnily. "It's for you, so I better not see it on a shelf." He says mock-sternly, eyes narrowed. Jaebum snorts.

"Sure." He says with an exasperated shake of his head, though he can't help his small smile; every time Mark comes back he does this, gives Jaebum something he found as a gift, but it never fails to tie his stomach into a fluttering knot, even after standards of the same. Still grinning, Mark hands over the box, Jaebum wondering if it's just his hopeful imagination or if Mark's fingertips actually do linger a fraction longer than necessary against his palm. He watches with barely contained excitement as Jaebum unwraps the velvet to reveal the box and his mouth falls open.

"Is this...?" He looks up to see Mark nod eagerly and point at it to silently encourage him to open it, but come on, it's not every day Jaebum gets given a Terren jewellery box, this is a big deal. Since the Flight from the then war-torn planet, this sort of thing became incredibly rare and thus incredibly expensive, considering barely anyone makes things like this anymore and it takes a _lot_ of protective equipment and subsequent decontamination to get anything off Terra - off _Earth_ \- itself. Plus, this box is gorgeous, made of dark wood with intricate designs worked into the top. But, Mark's clearly more excited about what's in the box than the box itself and Jaebum can have a happy half hour to himself examining it later, so he opens the lid.

Or tries to; it won't budge. Peering at it, it's obviously an actual box, with a lid and visible hinges, but it just won't move and when he looks up from it to ask Mark what's wrong with it, there's a mischievous glint in his eyes.

"What is this?" Jaebum asks suspiciously. Mark giggles, high-pitched and showing all his teeth. The knot in Jaebum's belly winds tighter and a smile comes unbidden to his face but he tries to tamp it down lest it become _too_ obvious just how smitten he is.

"It's a jewellery box." He says innocently; Jaebum rolls his eyes.

"I can see that," he says dryly, "but how do you open it?"

"Well that's the question, isn't it?" Mark leans his elbows on the counter, puts his chin in his hands and looks up at him expectantly. Jaebum frowns at him for a moment, before returning to the box with a sigh. It seems perfectly normal, apart from the whole not able to be opened thing. Having come across a fair few puzzle boxes in his time, Jaebum peers a little closer and sure enough, there's a line along the bottom of the front side, a small gap between pieces of wood. On further inspection, it appears that it has a strip set into it that's designed not to be seen; speculatively, he tries to slide it to the side and, lo and behold, it clicks and juts out a little and when he tries the lid, it easily comes open. Mark looks a little disgruntled when he looks up triumphantly. "I thought it would take you longer than that." He says with a pout. Jaebum shrugs and tries not to think about how cute he looks right now.

"I get things like this through here all the time." He says absently as he picks out the small drawstring bag. Setting the box aside gingerly, he pulls it open and tips it into his palm. Out roll three mismatched earrings: a simple gold ball, a copper coloured hoop and a small silver flower stud, the petals done in white enamel.

"Do you like them?" Mark asks, voice lilting hopefully. Smiling, Jaebum puts them carefully onto their bag in order to take out the plain black stud he's wearing in the bottommost hole in his right earlobe to exchange it for the flower.

"Of course I like them," he says, peering into one of the mirrors hung on the wall behind the counter; the flower looks nice in place, "thank you." Mark beams. He reaches for the earrings to put them in the little bag at the same time Jaebum does and their hands collide; Jaebum feels his face heat up, silently hoping it doesn't show as Mark pulls his hand back with a sheepish laugh.

"I'm glad," he nudges the box a little closer to Jaebum, "I've gotten you so many earrings now I thought you could use somewhere to put them all and I know you like Terran things." He studies Jaebum's face as he says it with slightly narrowed eyes, as if daring him to protest.

"Thank you." Is all Jaebum says in reply; he long ago learned there's no arguing with Mark about the gifts, even if they're way too expensive or rare for Jaebum to just accept and, while this is certainly one of the more extravagant things he's brought back from his travels, he's certain that no matter what he says, Mark's mind will remain firmly unchanged.

"You're welcome." He says smugly. Jaebum huffs a laugh, placing the bag back in the box and clicking it shut.

"How was your-" His question's cut off by angry beeping from Mark's backpack. Jaebum goes quiet, pretends to examine the box again while actually watching Mark dig around for his datapad.

"What is it, Bam?" He asks when he finally finds it and answers the call and there's clattering and what sounds like dock chatter accompanied by garbled swearing in at least four different languages for a moment before he replies.

"Fuel line's busted, like I _told_ you would happen," Bambam yells over the chatter, "so get back here, I need to get some supplies to fix it and I refuse to pay for what _your-_ " there's a clatter of metal on metal, presumably Bambam's thrown something in frustration- "carelessness broke." He hangs up with a furious huff. Mark chuckles sheepishly and stashes the pad in the pocket of his jacket.

"I'd better go take care of that." Jaebum nods, hoping his disappointment isn't obvious.

"Oh, um, let me give you what your last stuff brought back first," he squats down to peer into the shelves under the counter and grabs his pad from underneath a stack of papers, "should be enough to cover your repairs on its own." He taps the screen a few times, puts in the correct amount and gestures for Mark's arm, gingerly taking his wrist to position his cuff over it. The pad beeps a cheerful confirmation when it scans. Jaebum doesn't quite feel the same when the shop bank balance loses a digit, but it's not like it was his money to begin with, he just forgets how much Mark's stuff usually brings in.

"Thanks," Mark says, brushing hair out of his eyes and slinging the rucksack over his shoulder, "I'll drop by again as soon as I can." And with that he leaves, throwing a grin and a wave over his shoulder as he jogs off in the direction of the docks. Jaebum watches him go before he trudges over to lock the door again, taps at his bracelet to bring down the laser shutters and, when Mark's out of eyeshot, lets his head knock against the window with a heavy sigh.

 

Jaebum can feel a migraine coming on; he pinches the bridge of his nose and rubs his forehead, nodding along to the tinny auto-translated voice of the Yippeuth who's been attempting to sell him a forgery - not even a good forgery either - of an Elideron vase for the last forty-five minutes and has declined to leave even after Jaebum's repeatedly refused to buy the thing and even helped out two other customers while they've been standing there rambling.

"Look, I'm really sorry but I can't buy this for the price you're asking, it isn't real, it's a fake." He tries again but clearly the Yippeuth has selective hearing, continuing on with how "this vase has been passed through generations of my family" and "it's only because we've come on such tough times that we'd even consider selling it". Jaebum drops his head into his hands, tries not to groan aloud.

An hour later; he's finally convinced the Yippeuth, who'd eventually introduced themselves as J'Darh Tal, to leave, even if he eventually had to lie to them and say he couldn't afford to buy it. Which would be true if it were genuine, to be fair, considering that Elideron pottery can sell for more than ten thousand bits each. But either way, they're no longer his problem, which is nice considering the _rest_ of the problems this day-cycle's heaped on him: his ancient second-hand coffee machine decided that today was the day to kick the bucket, so he's had a caffeine headache since he woke up, he's had to chase off the same group of kids three times for trying to pocket some wires or something, his bracelet's been on the blink so he's almost missed people at the counter twice and the back of one of his earrings fell out, so now he's missing that too. It isn't one Mark gave him thankfully, but it doesn't make it any less irritating. Oh, and the rent for the last few tendays was due this morning. Joy beyond measure. Still, he managed to pay it at least, even if his bank account is looking a little less than healthy now.

His bracelet decides to actually buzz this time; he parts the bead curtain to see a furious-looking Jinyoung marching towards the counter. He bangs his head against the wall once, heaves a long sigh before wearily trudging over.

"Hello Jinyoung." He says tiredly. Or tries to, he barely gets past the first syllable of "hello" before he's being cut off.

"Why didn't you tell me Mark was on station?" He practically screeches. Jaebum winces, rubbing his temple gingerly.

"I've been busy," he mumbles, "besides, I'm not your personal Mark alarm." Jinyoung levels him an utterly unimpressed look.

"Could have had me fooled, what with how much you talk about him when he's not here." Jaebum flushes, folds his arms defensively.

"I don't-" Jinyoung cuts him off again, flapping a hand in front of him.

"Save it, I'm not here to talk about your big incredibly obvious crush on Mark-" Jaebum really hates Jinyoung sometimes- "I'm here because I _told_ you-" he points an accusatory finger at Jaebum, "a few cycles ago that it was very important that I talk to Mark _as soon_ as he next got back and considering _you_ are always the first one to see him when he comes here, you should be the best choice, right?" Jaebum opens his mouth to speak but Jinyoung just makes several spluttered "shut up" noises and prods him in the chest. He has to lean over the counter to do it, so it doesn't have the impact he's hoping for, but he's apparently enraged enough not to care that he looks silly. "But apparently, I can't trust you to do that because I happen to see Mark at the _parks_ by _chance_ two full cycles after he's arrived! And he had no idea I wanted to talk to him! Explain yourself!" And with that, Jinyoung folds his arms, glaring at him expectantly. He just shrugs, rubbing his eyes.

"I've been busy, alright? I forgot." And that's the whole truth. Jinyoung is, of course, unsatisfied.

"You've been so busy you forgot about a promise you made to one of your closest friends?" He says with a slow shake of his head. "One of your very select number of friends. I can count them on my fingers Jaebum." Ouch.

"Thank you for that Jinyoung." He says dryly, sitting heavily on the stool he keeps behind the counter. "And yes, I've been that busy." He sighs wearily. Jinyoung softens somewhat, eyeing him with some concern.

"Well I suppose you do look terrible." He sniffs. Jaebum huffs a laugh. "I guess I believe you." How very kind of him. "Plus your mind does tend to go out the window when Mark's back. All that pining I guess." He's unfortunately unaffected by Jaebum's withering glare. He doesn't like to be reminded about the pining.

"Is that everything or are you going to keep annoying me? I know you tend to forget but I'm actually working right now." He says testily. Jinyoung snorts.

"You're always working, you don't know how to stop-" Jinyoung may have him there considering he does actually live here- "but no, I'm done annoying you now." Jaebum heaves an only slightly exaggerated sigh of relief. Jinyoung just sneers at him. "Jackson sends his regards and apologises for missing your call again by the way." He says as he zips his waterproof jacket up; the parks needs watering apparently, so all of them have to deal with the rain.

"Tell your husband to stop being so flaky." He says gruffly, but there's no real heat to it. Jinyoung snorts but there's a fond smile on his face.

"I will if I can get a word in edgeways, they're just about to unearth a new section of the temple so he'll be unable to shut up about that for ages." Jaebum hums; there's no way Jinyoung will get to talk in their next call.

"I'll be sure to tell him you said that when he finally answers my calls." Jinyoung throws a hand sign over his shoulder, presumably a rude gesture in a language Jaebum doesn't know. Shaking his head, he shuffles back into the back room and slumps into the slightly comfier chair at his workbench, picks up his glasses and the thing he'd dug out of a box of junk he'd been sold yesterday that he's been restoring all day. He doesn't really know what it is, but it seems to be a kind of clockwork and he knows how clockwork works, so he's just going to try stuff out until something works or something breaks. Whichever comes first.

 

Jaebum hates going to the market sector. It's loud and it's busy and everyone shoves. He also has no choice but to wear a mask lest a particularly noxious species walk past and cause him to lose his lunch. Or, well, not his lunch, he's not eaten today. He can almost hear Jinyoung's nagging.

But unfortunately, he has no choice but to come here today; he's running woefully low on pretty much everything in his kitchen - hence the not-eating - as well as needing more restoration supplies. It's always stunning how fast he can go through some of those and he has a box of old Sinduren toys he's only just rediscovered from where it was sat next to the counter that could be worth a bit in better condition so he needs a _lot_ more.

"Jaebum!" He only just hears the shout over the clamour - a gaggle of Tumeri has just gone past in a wave of flapping tentacles and low-pitched chattering - but when he looks over his shoulder he sees Mark squeeze through the crowd and stumble to a stop next to him. He's in the leather jacket again, rucksack once again hanging from one shoulder and there's apparently a bright smile on his face under his mask given how crinkled his eyes are. "What are you doing out here? Actually left the shop for once?" Jaebum scoffs, about to snip back because, yes, he does go out sometimes, just not as often as others might, but someone collides with his back and sends him stumbling into Mark's side, cursing the pair of them out something fierce for just standing there in the middle of the street. Mark steadies him with a laugh, patting him on the shoulder and when Jaebum stands straight their faces are a lot closer than he was expecting; his retort dies on his tongue and he can feel himself turn a mortifying shade of red. Tongue tied, he sighs and just gestures for Mark to follow him, glaring briefly over his shoulder at the person who'd bumped into him then burying his face into his scarf in embarrassment.

The crowd thins out a bit when they turn into a side street. Well, there's room to breathe at least and they can actually see more than a few feet in front of them - every time he has to come buy things from the markets, Jaebum is eternally grateful that Naze has her store in the less busy part.

"Where are we going?" Mark asks, trotting ahead a few steps to walk backwards and stare up at the buildings. Jaebum clears his throat, nods forwards.

"I need some more supplies." Mark hums quietly.

"For restoration, right? I saw the box of stuff when I came by, toys or something?" He looks pleased with himself when Jaebum nods, a little surprised that he'd noticed. It twists Jaebum's already knotted insides into a more interesting shape and he looks away lest Mark notice that his blush has come back.

 

Naze's store might actually be more cluttered than Jaebum's, if that's at all possible; all manner of things are stuffed onto shelf after shelf, but rather than odds and ends and antiques, Naze sells, quote unquote, "useful things". Not to say that Jaebum has nothing useful for sale, but Naze specifically sells things that are, in her words, useful. All her things apparently have a practical use, even if she's the only one who really knows what that is.

She lumbers out of the back room when they enter the shop, hot humid air courtesy of the rumbling humidifiers washing over them; more than seven feet tall and seemingly made entirely of corded muscle, she cuts an intimidating figure, not helped by the sheen of bluish scales covering her skin and her huge, glassy and somewhat blind-looking eyes that still somehow manage to stare unnervingly right at one's face. Of course, that's because she does actually know where everything is, she just sees in infrared rather than visible light.

When she sees who's at the door she claps her hands and gestures hello. Pulling down his mask, Jaebum smiles, does the responding gesture and greets her in her own language.

" _Good weather to you, Matron._ " He's slowly getting used to speaking Elassi and it's worth the slight clumsiness to hear her pleased trill. " _I hope I find you well._ " He can feel Mark staring at him like he's grown a second head, but he ignores it, hoping desperately that Naze doesn't say anything about his face being warmer than usual.

" _Welcome back to me, nestling, I'm very well._ " She replies before switching to Common, "it's been far too long nestling, you know I worry about you." Her accent is thick but there's none of Jaebum's awkward stumbling in her second language. "What can I do for you today?" She seems to notice Mark for the first time and blinks in surprise, scaled double eyelids clicking. "Who is this?" She crosses the room in a few long strides, studying Mark curiously, who just smiles back, bows his head respectfully.

"I'm Mark." She makes a rippling noise, offers her hand; Mark takes it without hesitation and she lowers her head slightly.

"Seas bless our meeting, nestling," she pats his hand, "I am Naze." She side-eyes Jaebum suspiciously. "It's been a while since I've met another of Jaebum's friends, I was beginning to think Jackson and Jinyoung were the only ones besides Taehyung's family." Mark laughs as Jaebum flushes. What is it with everyone bringing up how few friends he has at the minute?

"Well there's me too at least." He says warmly, going on to ask about how she came to live on Lanzhou Station considering how far away her planet is, but Jaebum quickly zones out when he spots one of the polishes he needs buried under a mess of recipe books in various languages. There's a stack of mismatched baskets next to the counter and he grabs the top one - it's blue and made of plastic but the one underneath looks like it's woven from wire - to put the polish into it. His eye catches on a book of dessert recipes from all over the galaxy, but he passes over it wistfully; while he may have a sweet tooth, he doesn't need a book of recipes - there's a human on the front cover suggesting he'd be able to eat them - when he can find them on his datapad, he doesn't have the money to waste on it. Then he pauses and goes back to grab it; it's only a few bits. He's got to have some nice things, right? Mundane as they might be.

There's a loud bang followed by a series of clatters from a couple of shelves over. Jaebum pokes his head around the corner to see Taehyung's pop out from the pile of assorted things under which he's buried.

"Oh, hi Jaebum." He says brightly like he wasn't almost buried alive by fuses, spice packets and sticky note pads. Of which Jaebum grabs one - they're better than the datapad, comforting somehow. More personal. He also tends to look at them, whereas notes on his datapad get swiftly ignored to avoid looking at reminders of his bank balance. "It's been a while. How's business?"

"Business is fine." He says absently, distracted by the various screwdrivers in pots on the shelf behind Taehyung. It's lucky they didn't fall on him too. "How're the partners?" He beams from his pile.

"They're fine! Hoseok's enjoying his new job and Yoongi's having fun with painting the new place, they're putting a massive mural on one of the walls in our bedroom!" He gushes, clambering out of the pile in an avalanche of things and tugging his pad from his pocket with a flourish. "Look how cool it is and it's not even half done!" Taehyung taps at the cracked screen, pulls up a shaky image of a half-drawn landscape taking up the majority of a wall; it's very definitely Yoongi's handiwork.

"That'll be amazing when it's done." Comes Mark's voice from very close behind him; Jaebum jumps practically out of his skin and almost knocks another wave of stuff off the overburdened shelf. 

"Right?!" Taehyung bounces gleefully over to Naze to show her the photo - from her amused trill, she's seen it countless times already but she humours him nonetheless, cooing appreciatively and hugging him to her side. Mark laughs lightly, steadies Jaebum with a hand on his elbow.

"You alright there?" He teases. Embarrassed, Jaebum glowers at him and stalks over to the stacks of paint pots, but Mark just trails after him, looking at all of the things with wondering eyes. "This is a cool place, I can't believe I've never been here before." Jaebum hums in agreement, running light fingers over the paints to try and find the right colours, then jumps away with a squawk when Mark digs his elbow into his side. "That's me asking why you've never brought me here before, Jaebum." He says it reproachfully but his eyes are sparkling as he winks. Jaebum just shrugs, taps his fingers on the edge of the shelf.

"You've just never been on station when I've been before." He says it lightly, but something of his unhappiness at that must bleed through into his voice because Mark's smile dims a fraction, squeezing Jaebum's heart with it, but it's back full force the next second and he leans up to sling an arm around Jaebum's shoulders.

"Well good thing I'm here now then, right?" Jaebum breathes a laugh, smiling and unable to help leaning into him a little.

"I guess so." He says fondly. Mark shoots him a strange look that he can't quite decipher, but he's smiling as he does it and it's gone a second later, so he decides not to question it.

"I didn't know you speak Elassi." He says abruptly, peering at Jaebum's face. He shrugs as he puts a couple of paint pots into the basket.

"I don't speak a lot, but-" he hesitates, glances over his shoulder to check Naze is still busy with Taehyung across the shop and lowers his voice a little- "she won't admit it but Naze gets pretty homesick and I, um-" he shrugs, scratches the back of his neck sheepishly- "I wanted to help, so I've started learning it. I know what it's like to- to feel out of place." Mark's doing the wondrous stare again, but this time it's directed at Jaebum and he has to repress the urge to squirm and hide his face. Instead, he just smiles awkwardly and rearranges the things in his basket to make a space for the last paint pot he needs.

"That's pretty amazing." Mark says with a grin. Jaebum coughs an awkward laugh and tightens his grip on the basket, suddenly too hot with Mark so close behind him; he side-steps out from between him and the shelf and quickly makes his way around the end of the little aisle.

"It's not a big deal, really," he says when Mark follows, "just the least I could do, she helps me out with finding supplies all the time." The big tub of glues and adhesives is where it always is, on one of the slightly larger tables groaning under the weight of the things piled onto them - he makes a beeline for it and goes to put the basket on the table, but it actually does make a rather ominous creaking noise, so he snatches it back up quickly.

"It's still a really sweet gesture." Mark says stubbornly, taking the basket from him. With a noncommittal hum, Jaebum starts picking through the tub.

"If you say so." He mumbles, catching sight of himself in an open compact mirror sat on top of a box of others of various colours and internally groaning at how red his face is.

Naze bustles over the next moment, leaving Taehyung to his pile. She doesn't say anything, just leans into Jaebum's side and rumbles low in the back of her throat as she starts checking through something on her pad. Used to the fairly touchy nature common to her species, he doesn't think anything of it and busies himself with the adhesives, picking them up to examine them then dropping them back into the tub - he needs wood glue, which is understandably rare on the station considering how expensive wood is here. Farla, the planet they orbit and the only one with life in this fairly small system of only three planets orbiting a yellow star, doesn't have many forests left and the ones that remain are heavily protected by conservation laws, so any wood would need to be imported from another system. Some of the richest families have wooden dining sets that they wheel out for important events apparently, but Jaebum's never seen one. Small wooden toys or decorations he gets through fairly regularly, often from Mark, which is always nice since he can reasonably charge quite a lot for them.

"What are you looking for?" Mark asks suddenly, which would be surprising enough, but he also steps up behind him and rests his chin on Jaebum's shoulder. That's a little odd in and of itself, Mark's not usually about hands-on affection - that's always been Jackson's forte - but Jaebum's too flustered to really make anything of that so he just wiggles the tube in his hand and clears his throat.

"Wood glue." Naze clicks a few times and sticks her hand deep into the tub, rummaging around for a moment before pulling out a familiar yellow tube.

"You should have said earlier, nestling, I keep it at the bottom since only few buy it." She says warmly, putting it into Jaebum's basket. There's an odd atmosphere as she looks at Mark over Jaebum's shoulder, then she blinks and a small smile spreads over her lipless mouth, a habit she's seems to be learning from Taehyung. "Is there anything…" she makes a purring noise, searching for the right word, "anything… else that you need?" Jaebum shakes his head.

"Not right now, I'll let you know if I can't find something." She clicks an affirmative and bustles off, shooting Mark a knowing look. With a sigh, Jaebum awkwardly cranes his neck in an attempt to look at Mark. "I, um, I need to move." He says haltingly. Mark sighs himself, breath tickling Jaebum's neck and to his horror he shivers, a big, whole body thing that there's no way Mark didn't notice and it feels like the butterflies in his stomach are about to try and escape. Thankfully, he doesn't mention it, even if he blinks at him curiously; Jaebum just smiles nervously before fleeing to find some silver polish.

 

"Well they seem nice." Mark says as they leave twenty minutes later, Jaebum's backpack full of assorted useful things. He hums, flicking through his datapad and checking off everything he just bought - just food to get now, which means, unfortunately, that they have to return to the main market district.

"Yeah, they're good friends." He says absently, waving back at Taehyung through the window as they leave, tugging his mask back into place.

"Naze was starting to sound like Jinyoung with all that reminding you to eat." Mark laughs, though there's a certain air of reprimand about it. "Speaking of, you should really remember to eat." And there it is.

"I forget when I'm busy." It's more of a weak mumble than a strong defence, but then he's well aware of the fact that he really should take better care of himself.

"Not really an excuse." He says as they start walking, breezing past to turn around and raise his eyebrows pointedly at Jaebum as he walks backwards towards the markets. Jaebum sighs and stuffs his pad back into his jacket pocket, breath steaming in the cold air. The station tends to mimic the seasons it would be having based on its position over Farla, which is fine in summer, but much less pleasant in winter. Mark doesn't seem phased, casually strolling around in just his jacket and a t-shirt, while Jaebum's fit to fall over with how hard he's shivering even under his coat, scarf and thick sweater.

"Aren't you cold?" He grumbles, trudging after him. Mark laughs, shakes his head. His hair almost falls into his eyes now - Jaebum shoves down the urge to brush it away.

"We stopped off on Tainos on our way back here, it was colder than this for that whole visit." He sighs happily as he says this though, so he clearly didn't mind that much.

"Tainos?" Jaebum asks. He's not heard of that planet, which isn't that surprising really, he often hasn't heard of the places Mark visits.

"Yeah, in the Rohrdak cluster? It's a small rocky world, the furthest from its star, Phi Sigma Seven if I remember right. It never gets above minus twenty there, so it's a little nippy." He continues for a while, describing the planet and its mountain ranges and fifty metre tall glaciers, eyes lighting up as he does so. Jaebum's in two minds as he sneaks glances at him as they walk; on one hand, Mark's so endlessly excited talking about it that he'd be happy to listen to him for the rest of his life, but at the same time his chest feels tight and he's forced to choke down an ugly wave of envy that threatens to bubble out of his throat; there is not a lot he wouldn't give to be able to see all of the wonders Mark describes for himself, but, well. Some things aren't possible, no matter how much hope one has. Or used to have.

"It sounds amazing." He says quietly, shoving his hands deeper into the pockets of his coat. Mark chuckles, bumps their shoulders together.

"It is. I'll show you sometime." He says lightly. Jaebum's smile feels like glass, about to crack and fall off his face.

"Maybe."

 

Of all the different markets, the food district is the worst. Because of all the hundreds of species that live and visit the station every day, many with wildly different nutritional requirements, the food market is a hodgepodge of every kind of food imaginable, most of which are inedible and often extremely toxic to Terrans and due to the relative scarcity of Terrans in the galaxy, especially this far out from the commercial hubs, not that many vendors make it a priority to stock things they'd actually want to eat and those that do tend to charge exorbitantly for them. As such, Jaebum's grown accustomed to eating either cryostored, vacuum-dried things that Jinyoung can't look at without cringing - must be nice to have enough money to be able to turn one's nose up at them - or things that aren't _strictly_ for Terran consumption but that can be managed by his system nonetheless.

But this isn't even the main problem with the food district. No, that prize goes to the _smell_. Since, of course, many organisms are carnivorous or omnivorous, a lot of places sell meat and many of these butcher it there. Out in the open market. In front of passers-by. Needless to say, every trip to the markets has Jaebum go off meat for about a tenday afterwards; he sees the interiors of far too many vaguely disturbing animals for that. And this delightful smell then mingles with those of all of the different species perusing the assorted wares and _that_ is unbearable, even through his mask.

He never has to linger for very long at least; he can get everything he needs from just the one stall and that's wrapped up into a convenient and easy to transport package thanks to the owner, B'kyt - xe had been having some trouble with one of xyr new security systems a couple of standards ago, which had just happened to be the same one Jaebum had just had installed, so he'd been able to help set it up properly. Since then xe has taken it onto xyrself to make sure Jaebum doesn't have to wait for his stuff as long as he lets him know when he's coming to collect it - B'kyt has an extremely sensitive sense of smell, so much so xe can't take off xyr ventilator anywhere on the station except at home, so can very much understand Jaebum's desire to spend as little time down here as possible considering Jaebum's _lack_ of a ventilator.

B'kyt clacks xyr mandibles as Jaebum and Mark approach, waving a spindly arm in their direction, the pad sat on the counter translating the clicks and whistles into Common.

"Well, about time, antique boy! Been wondering when you'd show up," Jaebum just shakes his head and Mark looks between them in shock, "who's your buddy there? Shouldn't they be wearing more clothes? You Terrans don't like cold right?" B'kyt might be a good friend, but xe is certainly one of the nosiest people Jaebum's ever met and can be somewhat insensitive with it. Thankfully Mark takes it in stride, laughing it off and moving a little closer to the translator as xe bustles about in xyr shop.

"No I'm-" he pauses when Jaebum tugs him back away from it, shooting him a confused look. He jerks his chin at the translator.

"Xe can understand Common, just not speak it, just speak to xem." He mouths and Mark nods, eyes sparkling in comprehension. Despite the best efforts of the Collective - representatives from all Common species galaxy-wide - there are a few species that are physically unable to speak Common and as such have to rely on translators, as it the case for Chyrn like B'kyt.

"No, I'm fine, I've just come back from somewhere much colder anyway." B'kyt makes the crackling sounds Jaebum's come to realise is laughter.

"You and me both, two-legs," xe comes back to the front counter with a parcel held between two arms while the other two are holding and scrolling down a datapad, "so what do I call you then, Terran? And no I don't mean your name, I can't say all your fancy syllables," Mark laughs and B'kyt makes a pleased buzzing sound, "sure, sure, make your happy sounds, but seriously, what do I call you?" Mark hesitates, eyeing Jaebum, who just mouths the word "gender".

"I'm a man, I use he/him?" Mark says uncertainly, relaxing when B'kyt crackles again, head and most of xyr torso bobbing in an approximation of a nod.

"I see, another one of antique boy's boyfriends," Jaebum freezes, then has to resist the urge to face-palm; he forgot about that and sure enough, Mark starts, snaps his wide-eyed gaze over to Jaebum again, "who was the other one I met? The one who kept complaining that you don't eat?" Jaebum winces.

"You mean Jinyoung?" Mark's expression takes on a somewhat scandalised and getting towards suspicious look; Jaebum rubs his temple and makes a "cut it out" gesture as subtly as he can.

"Yeah, that's the one. He's the one with the husband right? How are they doing?" Xe bustles back over and plops the second parcel on top of the first. "What's wrong with your boyfriend's face? Looks like he just ate a kemv fruit." Kemv fruit apparently make people look very confused in that case.

"He's- he's fine." Jaebum steps on Mark's foot, he thankfully closes his mouth at least. "And so are Jinyoung and his husband."

"Well, good," B'kyt titters and taps on the pad a few times, "that'll be 300 bits, enough there for a few tendays probably," Jaebum moves his bracelet over the pad, sighing when it beeps then takes the parcels from xem, "here's your stuff then, antique boy, enjoy! And come see me more often! This old thing could do with some company!" Xe waves a couple of arms after them as they leave. Jaebum nods and smiles, both arms full of parcel, but Mark waves back at least.

"So what was all that, uh, boyfriend stuff about?" Mark asks when they're out of earshot and in a place where they're actually able to hear each other over the crowd's chatter. Jaebum sighs, side-steps to avoid a child.

"It's just, you know, Chryn can't speak Common, so they can't say Common or Terran names either, so B'kyt just refers to people by gender and nicknames and friends of other people." He says with a shrug. Mark remains slightly suspicious.

"Then why'd xe call Jinyoung your boyfriend?" Jaebum flushes but rolls his eyes.

"Because Jinyoung is my friend who happens to be a boy and the translator just puts what xe said into Common literally. Xe didn't mean 'boyfriend' in that sense, it's not what xe was saying." Mark looks taken aback, then somewhat mollified and he laughs sheepishly.

"That makes sense," he pauses, then a smile slowly spreads over his face, "wait, does that mean xyr nickname for you is 'antique boy'?" He looks inordinately pleased by this. Jaebum sighs heavily - this is going to be like when Jinyoung found out all over again, isn't it? - but nods. Mark seems positively delighted. "That's so cute! It's even better than station boy." Jaebum flushes darker and buries his face into his scarf.

"Shut up." He mumbles into it. Mark just grins and nudges his shoulder into Jaebum's.

 

"Hey antique boy." Of course. Jaebum groans but doesn't lift his head from his arms folded on the countertop. In his defence, it's very early in the day-cycle and he only got up about forty-five minutes ago thanks to his alarm failing to go off which, coupled with the two hours of sleep he got, results in a certain level of grumpiness.

"Hello Bambam. How lovely to see you." There's a snort and a prod to the back of his head. "Where's Mark?" Bambam scoffs, apparently offended.

"What, am I not good enough for you?" He demands in an overly upset voice, playing up a crack and everything. Jaebum rolls his eyes as he sits up, raising his eyebrows at him.

"You've never come here without him before. In fact, you've specifically said and I quote 'I don't like your shop, it's full of old things', so why would you be here if Mark isn't?" It's at that moment that Mark pokes his head around from behind a shelf of - yes, admittedly very old, understandable considering he sells _antiques_ \- data receivers. Jaebum pointedly looks from him to Bambam, who just wrinkles his nose and mumbles something presumably unflattering before strolling back out the front door with his nose in the air. Shaking his head at him with a laugh, Mark comes over to lean against the counter, smiling up at Jaebum. There's something off about it though, something apologetic; Jaebum's heart sinks.

"We're going to be taking off again." He says bluntly after a moment's silence, fiddling with one of the wishing stones from the pot next to Jaebum's elbow. "End of this day-cycle." And there it is. Jaebum nods, doesn't bother trying to fake a smile.

"Where to?" He asks like he always does, even though the answer will just sting. There's a moment of hesitation on Mark's end, like he knows it will, but he answers like he always does.

"Varda, in the Aals system." Jaebum's heard of the Aals system, everyone has; home to some of the oldest civilisations in the galaxy. He should find some really valuable things there - there are a lot of derelict ships in orbit around the seven planets in the system and Varda itself is famous for its markets. "It's apparently beautiful." Of course it is. Mark only seems to go to beautiful places. It's fitting really, he must fit right in in them. Jaebum's better suited to here, someone to blend into a crowd rather than go to fantastic places and see wondrous sights.

"How long will it take?" Jaebum gives up on eye contact, opting to scroll through his datapad's news feed, but he's not reading it, eyes unfocussed. Mark's gaze rests on him like a physical weight and he resists the urge to squirm.

"Probably about six tendays, maybe up to eight." A bit longer than average then.

"Well." Jaebum swallows hard, takes a deep breath. He contemplates what he could say: 'have fun' (pointless, of course he will), 'please stay' (also pointless, of course he won't), 'I've been in love with you for standards' (that would just result in a headache for both of them), but he settles on: "Be careful." A bit unoriginal maybe, but it's the best option he has at the moment. Mark snorts softly, drops the wishing stone back into the pot.

"I will." There's a long pause. Jaebum braces himself for the inevitable and lets out a unsteady sigh when Mark puts his hand on Jaebum's, fingers curling over his and squeezing lightly. "Come with me?" Every time. Every single time Mark leaves he asks this and every time Jaebum has to say no, even though there's nothing in the universe he wants more.

"You know I can't." At the very least, he's gotten good at hiding the emotion in his voice when he says no. It's only taken five standards.

"I guess so." Mark says sadly, slowly takes his hand away. Jaebum grips the edge of the counter hard enough to turn his knuckles white to stop himself from grabbing it again and just agreeing, internally cursing out the station administration for their exorbitant rent, this shop for not making enough to let him leave even for a few cycles, even his parents for migrating here in the first place, fury and sadness and an unnameable emptiness crushing his chest.

"Maybe next time." He chokes out like he always does, but he stopped believing that a long time ago. Mark nods, smiles understandingly when he glances up and sighs, kicking his feet against the scuffed floor as he walks around to the front of the counter and pulls him into a hug. His chin slots perfectly into the curve of Jaebum's shoulder and he wraps his arms around Jaebum's waist as Jaebum buries his face into the crook of his neck.

"I'll find you something pretty." He murmurs, patting Jaebum on the back. He laughs shakily, glad Mark can't see his face right now.

"Okay." They just stand there for a moment, Mark calmly breathing and stroking Jaebum's hair while Jaebum struggles to keep it together, but he eventually gets himself back under control and pulls away, smile a little more genuine when Mark squeezes his shoulder.

"I'll see you when I get back-" he winks- "good luck with selling the stuff I brought." Jaebum bats his hand away with a snort.

"Sure, thanks." He says dryly. Mark chuckles, hoisting the strap of his rucksack higher onto his shoulder and heaving a breath.

"Well, I'd better go start getting ready to go, so I'll see you later." It's never 'goodbye', only ever 'see you later'; when Jaebum asked him about it, standards ago now, he just said it felt like an ending, like it should be the last thing you ever say to someone and he doesn't want that finality when he means to come back.

He backs up for the door, almost tripping over a box full of belts but he manages to catch himself before he does. He shoots Jaebum a sheepish grin and turns around properly, waving over his shoulder.

"Don't miss me too much." He calls back, beckoning for Bambam to follow him as he reaches the street - he hops to his feet from where he's been sat on the pavement and dashes after him, throwing Jaebum a salute on his way past. Jaebum shakes his head fondly, waving back until they disappear, then turns, slowly walks to the back room, smile sliding off his face like water off a window pane. He taps his bracelet as he goes, turning the lights off in the shop and closing the door and laser shutters despite the early hour. Bead curtain chiming, he slumps against the wall next to it, slides down to the floor and drops his head into his hands.


	2. Chapter 2

That whole not missing him thing? It doesn't go well. Not that it ever does really, but Jaebum's gotten pretty used to it by now, even if his coping mechanisms are less than stellar - and by this he means probably more harmful than helpful, what with the lack of sleeping and eating, not that there's much change there. Hence two days later Jinyoung physically drags him out of the shop by his ear; he barely manages to lock up before he's out of range for his bracelet to work.

"Right, I've given you time to mope," Jinyoung says briskly, "and I know you're not eating enough so I'm taking you to lunch and no, you don't have a choice." Stumbling, Jaebum pulls Jinyoung's hand off his ear and rubs it gingerly, fingertips lingering on the little white flower stud.

"You could have just said that instead of trying to rip my ear off." He grumbles, but he still falls into step next to Jinyoung, taking the coat Jinyoung had taken off the peg by his workbench and sliding his arms into it. Jinyoung levels him a disbelieving look before shaking his head with a huff.

"And would you have come without physical persuasion?" Is all he says. Jaebum doesn't reply, zipping up his coat with a jerk - he may have a point there. "Didn't think so."

Jinyoung takes him into the commercial sector like he always does when they go out to eat. While Jaebum may not like the market sector, at least he feels vaguely at home there, or not _not_ at home anyway; here, he just feels wrong. He sticks out like a sore thumb in his beat up jacket and jeans - everyone they pass is in their species' equivalent of business attire, even Jinyoung, but then he always dresses like he's meeting a very rich client. Really doesn't help Jaebum's self-consciousness though; he sighs through his nose, flipping the collar up on his jacket.

"Why do you always bring me here?" He mutters, glaring back at a Milsaran who eyes him with distaste as they walk past, gills flaring under their breather. Jinyoung looks around and sneers at the back of the Milsaran's head before grabbing Jaebum's wrist and pulling him along faster. Manhandling seems to be a theme with Jinyoung.

"Just ignore them." Jaebum snorts.

"Easy for you to say, they aren't staring at you." Jinyoung pretends not to hear him and continues to drag him down the street.

Jinyoung always takes him to the same café for lunch, a little one on a side street just off the main commercial thoroughfare. Jaebum has no idea how to say the name, it's not in Common and he doubts he has the vocal chords to pronounce it right, but they serve food Terrans can eat, so he doesn't question it and reluctantly allows Jinyoung to pay for them both. It's not like he can afford to eat here otherwise.

"So, how are things going?" Jinyoung asks as he sits opposite Jaebum having placed their order, plopping into the chair with a huff.

"Fine." Jaebum eyes him warily and he groans.

"Don't look so suspicious, I'm just trying to see if you're okay," he folds his arms irritably, "it's almost like you're my friend or something." Okay, well that makes Jaebum feel somewhat guilty; he mumbles an apology, but Jinyoung shakes his head, rolling his eyes so hard Jaebum's a little concerned he's blinded himself. "Don't apologise, just, you know, talk to me of your own volition occasionally." He stares pointedly at him. Jaebum laughs sheepishly, scratches his throat.

"I'll try to remember." Jinyoung hums, eyes narrowed suspiciously.

"You'd better." Is all he says.

They don't talk about anything serious until they're both almost done with their food, or rather, Jinyoung's almost done. Jaebum's is long gone; he doesn't get to eat things this nice often and as such eats it far too quickly, much to Jinyoung's displeasure since he's now picking at his instead. He doesn't try too hard to stop him though, so he can't mind too much.

"So, I'm going to ask you again," Jinyoung's sadly not discouraged by Jaebum's groan, "why didn't you tell Mark how you feel?" Jaebum sometimes wonders why he made friends with some of the nosiest people in the galaxy.

"Because I didn't want to." He answers honestly. Or, mostly honestly, he does sort of want to, but not yet and possibly not ever depending on how things turn out in the future. Jinyoung looks unimpressed.

"Why? You know, or you should by now, that he feels the same." Well, that's up for debate; Jaebum doesn't know how Mark feels, he just has Jinyoung and Jackson's word and his own biased observations to go on for that and regardless of how it might appear, he's not entirely convinced. Hopeful, sure, but not convinced. But sadly, Jinyoung won't accept that as an answer since he _is_.

"It's not... It wasn't the right time." A bit weak maybe but better than 'I don't know', that just makes the conversation last twice as long.

"It never is, is it?" Jinyoung says dismissively through a mouthful of rice with a roll of his eyes. Now, Jaebum knows he means well, but he doesn't have to be rude about it and there's something about this retort that presses some button in him because that's exactly what he's been agonising over for actual _standards_ now.

"No, it isn't." He snaps back, hands clenched into tight fists on his thighs under the table. Taken aback, Jinyoung swallows, sets his spoon down.

"Well..." His brow furrows, clearly not sure why Jaebum reacted like that. "Why not?" Jaebum deflates, having not anticipated having to answer a follow-up question; Jinyoung usually snaps to angry attention as quickly as he does, if in an icier and to be honest scarier way than Jaebum does, so he'd been expecting a hissed argument that ended with one of them walking out. Well, 'one of them' being him, Jinyoung doesn't like to make a scene and Jaebum respects him enough even angry to leave before he starts yelling.

"I, well, it's-" he sighs, slumps into his chair, "there's no point, is there?" Jinyoung puffs up, clearly expecting to have to give the 'of course he likes you, you idiot' speech Jaebum's become so familiar with over the standards. "No, I mean, even if he did feel the same way - not now, okay, please?" Jinyoung de-puffs, gesturing for Jaebum to continue. "Even if he did, what would happen?" Jinyoung pauses in picking up his glass, cocking his head questioningly at him. He sighs, runs a hand through his hair. "Nothing would change. He'd- he'd leave again, off finding things and- and exploring the galaxy while I'm just-" he swallows hard, "while I'm just left behind here." He tails off weakly, unable to speak anymore past the ache in his throat. Keeping his eyes firmly on the table, he slowly unclenches his fists, massaging his palms to soothe the sting of the crescents his nails left behind. Jinyoung doesn't say anything; a glance up reveals him to be studying the table too, searching for something optimistic to say. Nothing comes to him apparently; he sighs and sets his glass down with a clink, avoiding Jaebum's eyes - he'd like to feel vindicated, but all he gets is a hollowness in his chest.

 

Jackson, for once in his life, actually calls first. The loud bell of the ringtone - so that's what it's set to, some generic old-fashioned bell tone - startles Jaebum out of his daze of concentration; he almost drops the ring he's examining, which wouldn't have been good, considering the 'gemstone' is actually glass, but thankfully he catches it. Setting it aside, he takes his glasses off, digs his datapad out from the pile of debris to his left, swiping up to answer the call. Jackson's face appears in glorious 144p and the feed locks up briefly when he waves frantically.

"Hey! How are things going for you?" Jackson says excitedly, voice tinny. Jaebum blinks at him, brain coming out of work mode and catching up to the situation.

"What are you doing?" He blurts, wincing when Jackson's face falls. "No, I mean, I'm glad you called, but why did you? You never call." There's an offended huff, but Jackson doesn't move with it - the camera's locked up again.

"That is not true-" it's completely true- "and I called because Jinyoung said you'd been avoiding him even more than usual." The latter part is a little sheepish. So, even now there's an ulterior motive.

"Do you just not like talking to me or something?" Jaebum jokes, rubbing his eyes, though a little part of him can't help but wonder.

"No! You know that's not it!" He exclaims, pointing an indignant finger at him. "It's your goddamn lack of a sleep schedule, you always call me either when I'm working or in the middle of the night!" Well. He's never mentioned that before. There's a long-suffering groan when Jaebum says as much. "Yeah, because it's not like you'll actually listen to us and start working a normal amount of time so you'll always just call whenever you remember which always ends up being some time I can't talk." It seems like he's been holding that in for quite a while.

"Why didn't you say anything before?" Jaebum asks sheepishly. The video feed is surprisingly decent enough that Jaebum can see Jackson's eye-roll - he's been married to Jinyoung for too long.

"Because I didn't want you to feel bad-" that just makes him feel worse- "anyway, that's not why I called," he says dismissively, flapping a hand, "Jinyoung said you're still upset about Mark leaving." Jaebum's still somewhat reeling from the revelation that he's the unreliable and awkward - well, awkward in this sense, he's well aware of his general awkwardness - one in this friendship so answers on autopilot.

"It's just, it seemed like he was here for no time at all before he left, I wanted to spend more time with him." He says distractedly while trying to count back all the times he phoned Jackson and convert them into Farlan time. Dimly he notes Jackson's staring at him open-mouthed in shock, but that's not so pressing right now. "Wow, I really do call at bad times." Thinking back, the last three times he called were actually in the very early hours of the morning down on Farla. No wonder he doesn't answer.

"Did you just... talk about your feelings without an hour's worth of grilling?" Jackson asks incredulously. Jaebum snaps out of his daze and stares at Jackson in confusion and then embarrassment when he realises what he said.

"Shut up." He groans, rubbing his eyes. Jackson makes a spluttering noise and flaps his hands.

"No, no, I'm not making fun of you, I swear! I was just surprised! You need to talk about your feelings more!" Jackson says frantically. Eyeing him suspiciously, Jaebum props the pad up against a pot of paintbrushes and folds his arms on the table to rest his chin on them. Jackson just waits expectantly until he sighs and looks away.

"I- ugh..." he buries his face in his arms to hide his red face. “I just... I miss him." He mumbles, almost definitely too quiet and muffled for Jackson to hear him and sure enough:

"What?" Jackson asks. He groans again, sitting up and folding his arms defensively and very pointedly not looking at the pad.

"I miss him. I always miss him." His cheeks feel hot. "It's not a big deal, I'm used to it." He sees Jackson's face soften out of the corner of his eye.

"Then why are you so down this time?" He asks gently. Jaebum resists the urge to roll his eyes.

"Just because I'm used to it doesn't mean it doesn't make me sad." He tries to sound unaffected but unfortunately just sounds, well, sad. "Look just- you don't need to worry about me, I'll be fine." Jackson seems unconvinced. To avoid making eye contact Jaebum picks up the thing he'd dug out of a box of junk he'd been sold the other day earlier - an image search of the datanet had said it was a massively popular device for playing music, Crifasian in origin, but one that had been obsolete for nearly seventy standards. As such it has little to no value beyond curiosity, so Jaebum left it on his workbench to dismantle later. Taking things apart is very therapeutic - this is something he can completely understand and he can control it and fix it and put it back together. Or something like that.

"Well first of all, I worry about you all the time anyway so don't even bother," Jaebum doesn't try to contain his eye-roll this time, "and second it's okay to miss him you know?" He hesitates. "Do you think it would help to tell him how you feel?" It takes a physical effort not to snap at him, but then he had this conversation with _Jinyoung_ countless times, not Jackson, so it's not his fault he doesn't know how irritated this question makes him.

"No, I don't." He's still pretty short with his answer, but Jackson doesn't look upset at least. "There's no point. He'd just leave anyway regardless of how he feels." Jackson hums, looks down with a frown.

"I guess you're right. It would be hard to maintain a relationship like that." He heaves a long sigh, then looks up with a determined set to his face. "Well that's depressing and I think we could both use a chat about something happier so," he claps his hands, a grin coming to his face, "I'm going to tell you all about the temple wing we've been excavating!" He practically wriggles with delight. Jaebum smiles and settles more comfortably in his chair, puts his glasses back on while picking through his screwdrivers as Jackson begins his rant. They become oddly soothing after a while.

 

It's Taehyung who opens the door, but Hoseok is the first to speak.

"Hi Jaebum! It's been so long!" It's been about fourteen cycles but Hoseok's always liked to exaggerate. He's waving from the kitchen, just his head and an arm briefly visible before he's ducking back inside.

"Hey Hoseok." He calls back, offering the bottle of - admittedly fairly cheap - wine he's brought to Taehyung. It takes some nudging before he notices it - he's too busy staring at the kitchen door with hearts in his eyes - but when he does he beams, cuddling it to his chest.

"Nice!" He enthuses, pausing before following it up with- "oh wait, thanks! You didn't have to-" tacked on as an afterthought - Hoseok nags at him a lot about politeness, but he has trouble remembering sometimes. Jaebum shakes his head fondly.

"No problem." He says to Taehyung's back as he bounces away to put it in the fridge. After toeing his shoes off, he makes his way to the kitchen to customarily offer his help, but as per usual Hoseok commands that he leave as soon as he pokes his head around the door, brandishing a spatula threateningly in his direction without even looking. Taehyung snickers from where he's rearranging the fridge.

Suitably chastised, Jaebum pads to the sitting room and drops into an armchair. Yoongi grunts from their perch on the sofa, curled up and sketching onto a thick pad of paper.

"Hello." Jaebum murmurs, letting his head flop against the back of the chair with a sigh. These chairs are much nicer than anything he owns, he could fall asleep like this very easily. He slumps a little lower and lets his eyes droop closed.

"How're things?" Yoongi says when they finish whatever they're drawing, jerking Jaebum out of his sleepy daze.

"Things are okay." He mumbles, yawning into the crook of his arm. Yoongi hums, eyeing him suspiciously, but they let it go and nod, setting the paper aside and unfurling from their ball. "How about you? How's business?" They nod, a small smile curling their lips up.

"It's going good, I've had a couple of big commissions and the stuff in the shop is selling pretty well too." They say proudly. Jaebum grins; Hoseok and Taehyung had been encouraging Yoongi for ages, probably two standards, to start selling their artwork and finally, eight or so tendays ago, they'd agreed to try it out. It seems to have been a success, which also appears to have done wonders for Yoongi's self-esteem, if Taehyung's gushing can be trusted.

"That's great." Yoongi flushes exactly as Hoseok clatters into the room - cue the cooing and Yoongi's grunts as they end up with an armful of boyfriend.

"Were they telling you about the shop? It's amazing, everyone loves their work!" He gushes, squeezing Yoongi hard and rocking them side to side. They have their grumpy face on, but they're very obviously trying not to smile. "What was that commission you got the other day? From the station administrator!" Hoseok bounces back to his feet, dancing a few steps around the living room. Yoongi watches him as he replies, eyes that particular kind of soft that they only get looking at his partners.

"Yeah, she wanted me to paint her daughter with her pet for her birthday." Hoseok grins and ducks to press a kiss to Yoongi's cheek on his way back into the kitchen. They flush a little, glaring at Jaebum's admittedly poor attempt to hide an amused grin.

 

Dinner passes in a whirl of delicious food and raucous laughter mostly from Taehyung and Hoseok and ends with Jaebum face down on their sofa groaning pitifully - he's not used to eating so much in one sitting, even despite having dinner with them every other tenday or so. Hoseok sits by his head, chattering aimlessly about his day and his students at his dance studio - thankfully he doesn't really expect proper responses, so Jaebum can get away with humming or grunting where appropriate. Taehyung and Yoongi respectively bounce and shuffle back in once they've finished cleaning up - something with which Jaebum had once again not been allowed to help, despite his protests - and plop onto the floor by Hoseok to join the one-sided conversation.

Food having settled somewhat and having actually started contributing to the conversation a while ago, Jaebum yawns and gets to his feet, waving away the three of them who go to get up.

"It's fine, don't worry, I know the way to your door-" Hoseok slowly settles back into his chair- "thank you for having me." All three of them roll their eyes and wave that away as he pulls his coat on and grabs his scarf.

"Don't go so long without coming over next time!" Yoongi yells as he heads out.

"Sure thing." He calls back, shutting the door with a click. Heaving a sigh, he trots down the stairs, wrinkling his nose at the darkness outside. It's even colder than in the day-cycle when he steps out their apartment building - his breath comes in puffs in front of him as he wraps his scarf around his neck. "Why must station admin do this?" He grumbles to himself, shoving his hands deep in his pockets. "Literally no one likes this weather." Not entirely true, there are numerous species that prefer cold temperatures, but right now, with his nose and fingers quickly turning numb, Jaebum's not feeling that generous.

His bracelet buzzes - midnight. He sighs, watches the steam cascade upwards as he trudges aimlessly down the street. Or well, maybe not aimlessly, he admits as he catches sight of the familiar sign for the viewport that's at the end of the street, but certainly not towards home like he should be going.

Those three are so lucky to live so near a good viewport, there aren't any in the cheap districts like the one in which Jaebum lives, they cost far too much to set up and in his sort of district people don't have _time_ for frivolous things like looking at the stars. Too busy trying to make ends meet and not get kicked off the station. It's easy to forget how miserable a situation it is in which so many people find themselves. His situation isn't quite that dire at the moment, but still, it's precarious enough that he can barely afford to go one day with the store closed every tenday lest his bills start creeping up on him and he's had to beg admin for extensions on his rent multiple times in the past, enough that they just flat out refuse to give him any more.

There's no one outside the squat grey building when he walks up to the door, the VI that mans the front desk powered down, a little red standby light flashing on the projector but this place is open all hours so he walks past it, more than familiar with the layout of this particular building. The room he always uses is the last of eight at the end of the corridor on the right and, surprise surprise, it's empty - it always seems to be for some reason, even during the day. With a swipe of his hand over the panel by the door, the lights inside fade out as he shuts the door behind him, until the room's in complete darkness, before pinpricks of light start to blossom on the screen covering the entire far wall.

The stars are beautiful. A cliché thought it might be, but there's not a lot else to be said when confronted with the expanse that stretches beyond the viewport, sharp enough that one could be forgiven for thinking it was an actual window. In the dark room, the points of white and blue and red are the only lights, the occasional ship drifting past along the trade route to the left of the screen. It hurts Jaebum's eyes a little, straining to look at them, but he barely notices, slowly raising a hand and hesitating before pointing at one of the pinpricks. A panel opens on the screen, a blown up image of the star - small, white, unremarkable - with a short passage about it.

_"Ilenia,"_ it reads, " _a white dwarf surrounded by a system of seven planets, two of which support life and the remaining five, rich in numerous valuable elements, sustain closed-system mining colonies._ " He picks the largest planet and it zooms in again, showing a reddish world with swirls of dark brown clouds covering the surface. " _Tuel, the largest planet of the Ilenia system, is a naturally lifeless world with an iron-rich surface…_ "

Needless to say Jaebum spends far too much time flicking through planets and stars and space stations, all picked out from this tiny corner of the space he can see in the viewport screen and then only from those that are visible. It's a little terrifying really. Everything is so _big_ , while he's just one person who's never even left this little station but at the same time it's utterly amazing. All of these hundreds and thousands and _thousands_ of planets all with thousands of different species, sentient or not, they're all out there, they all exist right now and there's countless billions of people all living their lives all at once. It's somehow both unpleasant and comforting to think about, that in the end he's one tiny and ultimately irrelevant part of this galaxy.

Something beeps and scares the life out of him - he almost falls over in fact, but manages to keep his balance just about - it's the screen; there's a little clock flashing at the bottom, saying he's been in there an hour. It's not technically time-limited, but during the day they like to usher people out to let others have a go with the viewports. It also therefore indicates it's about half one in the morning, so it's probably wise for Jaebum to go home now. With one last longing look at the speckled blackness of the screen, he leaves, squinting painfully at the glare of the corridor. It's not even bright considering the darkness in the rooms is taken into consideration, but it's still enough of a change to sting. Keeping his head down, he ducks back out the front, trudging slowly towards his distant district, mind still whirling with stars and resurfacing dreams.

 

Jaebum is jolted awake rather unceremoniously by an insistent blaring from his bracelet. Smacking blindly on his bedside table, he eventually grabs it to see the time - too damn early in the day-cycle, a couple of hours before he needs to open - and the reason it's so loud: someone's at the door. Grumbling to himself, he half-falls out of bed and stumbles from his room, grabbing a hoodie and tugging it on over his sleep shirt. He almost trips over a box of tools he'd naively believed he'd remember to put away before crashing into bed last night but manages to catch himself before he can brain himself on a shelf, then shuffles to the front of the shop - it's a good thing everything's on one floor else he'd probably have died a long time ago falling down the stairs while half-asleep.

Unlocking the door reveals an Olastid in a postal worker uniform with a few large black plastic boxes stacked behind them. They chitter a greeting and offer the datapad they're holding.

"Delivery for you." They say cheerfully. Jaebum signs the pad automatically, only to frown at them in confusion.

"I'm not expecting-"

"Thank you!" They cut him off and bustle away, flicking through the pad and clambering into their vehicle, other boxes and parcels stacked high in the back of it. Jaebum sighs, massaging his forehead - this isn't the first time he's been given the wrong mail, so at least he knows who to call about it - and a glance over the boxes reveals a big sticker plastered to one side with an address and-

Huh. That is his actual address and that's definitely his name. He frowns at the crates for a minute, arms folded, then comes to the slightly embarrassing realisation that he's standing in the street barefoot and in his pyjamas staring at a box and it's also really cold out here, so maybe this is a mystery to solve inside.

It's solved fairly quickly once he's hauled them into the shop one by one - they're ridiculously heavy for their size and the contents rattle somewhat ominously - as the first thing he sees is a note tucked just under the lid of the first crate.

"How much did these cost?" He asks with a heavy sigh. Naze rumbles mock-disapprovingly, tinny over the poor connection - her datapad really needs an upgrade.

"Not even a greeting nestling? Your manners really are lacking." She teases. Jaebum rolls his eyes, drumming his fingers on the top of the box.

"I'm serious, how much were these? What do I owe-" he stops with a restrained groan when she cuts him off with irritable clicks.

"They're a present, a thank you for being my friend." Her bluntness takes his voice away for a moment, something she takes great advantage of. "So do not come to me with any of your money, I want you to have these. They're from an auction of an old family's things they're getting rid of, out of system." She huffs her version of a laugh. "I am not even sure what is in them, but you can keep them or sell them, whichever feels right to you." Jaebum has to choke down the lump in his throat before he can respond.

"Thank you." He mumbles, scratching his nose. "I, um, I'm glad you're my friend too." Well, that's a lame answer. Naze doesn't seem to mind though, she rumbles happily and there's a smile in her voice when she replies.

"Well, that’s good. Now," she sighs, "I have to open up the shop, so I have to go, but come visit again soon, alright?" Jaebum nods, realises she can't see him and hums an affirmative. She makes a pleased noise and hangs up with a click. Jaebum lets the hand holding the datapad drop to his side, staring at the boxes with a small smile.

His bracelet buzzes at the same time as someone raps on his window, making him jump. He sets the datapad onto the boxes and turns to see Mark waving at him. Extremely conscious of the fact that he's still in his pyjamas, he pads over to the door, smoothing his unruly hair down and pulling it open.

"Good morning, antique boy," Mark says brightly, "did you only just get up?" Jaebum smiles awkwardly, heat rising on his face as he nods.

"How was your trip?" He asks, still trying surreptitiously to flatten a particularly stubborn tuft of hair on the side of his head. Mark's face lights up and he starts gushing about Varda and the markets and all the wonderful sights he'd seen as he steps into the shop, skirting around a knocked-over tray of plastic bracelets. Jaebum nods along, that familiar heaviness constricting his chest but he pushes it down and tries not to let it show on his face.

"Oh, did you get a delivery?" Mark stops mid-rant as he comes upon the boxes stacked in his way, pats the top one and ducks to look at the label on the side. Jaebum nods, kneels to sort out the bracelet tray.

"Sort of. It's from Naze." Mark's eyes spark in recognition and he bounces back over to help Jaebum with picking up the bracelets. Their fingers brush a couple of times and Jaebum has to stop himself jerking his hands away at the sparks that tingle through him, cursing his weak heart every time.

"How is she?" He asks. With a non-committal hum, Jaebum sets the tray back in place on its shelf and pushes himself to stand, hesitates for a moment before offering his hand to Mark. He takes it with a blinding smile and goose-bumps tingle up Jaebum's arm.

"She's fine, busy as usual." Mark nods, squeezes his hand briefly before letting go and edging past the boxes towards the counter. Shaking his head at himself, Jaebum wipes his sweaty palms on his sweatpants and follows, grabs the datapad from the crate on his way past.

"How have you been?" Jaebum looks up at him, startled, not having expected the question but Mark just smiles at him, though there's a worried air to it. Coughing to hide his to hide his fluster, Jaebum sets the datapad on the counter, nudges the stool out of the way to stand next to it.

"I'm fine." He mumbles but Mark doesn't look convinced. With a worried twist to his mouth, he unslings the bag from his shoulder and sets it on the floor, leans on his elbows on the counter to look up at Jaebum.

"You sure?" He nods, but Mark just narrows his eyes slightly. "Jinyoung told me you haven't been doing so great." That traitor. Jaebum forces a small laugh and waves a hand, taps on the datapad a few times to bring him to some news page that he can pretend to read.

"I'm fine. You know how Jinyoung gets." He thinks he did a pretty good job of sounding unaffected but Mark's still frowning at him. "Seriously, I'm f-" His words die on his tongue when Mark takes his hand, squeezes gently, thumb rubbing circles onto the back of it.

"He said you've been overworking yourself again." He murmurs, eyes wide with genuine worry, searching his face for something. Jaebum's cheeks feel hot and his hands are unpleasantly clammy, but with a monumental effort he doesn't snatch his hand back.

"I'm fine." He repeats, voice wavering slightly but it doesn't crack at least. "Rent's just coming up." The words are bitter on his tongue and his head feels stuffy with a yet-to-develop headache; rent, the source of most of his problems on this damn station. Mark still looks unhappy.

"Still, your health needs to come first, you know, rent or not." Those are the words of someone who's never struggled to pay rent; this time Jaebum does take his hand back.

"I'll worry about my health when I'm not cycles away from being kicked off the station." He says shortly, not quite a snap. He doesn't even know if he could snap at Mark, not really. Mark looks taken aback, then sad, then determinedly happy and he picks up his rucksack from the floor.

"Well, maybe some of this can help with that." He says with a hopeful lilt and a little wiggle of the bag; Jaebum's heart melts. Cracking a small smile of his own, he gestures for him to put it on the table. With a flourish, he unzips it and pulls out the first object. It's hard to tell what it is at first, a bundle of wire and glass and beads, but Mark unfurls it to reveal what looks like a dreamcatcher, the top a woven circle of copper and steel and silvery beads with several wires dangling and ending in pieces of smoothed glass that shine with different colours as they turn. "I picked this up at the markets on Varda, but this is actually for you, not the shop." He holds it out and Jaebum takes it gingerly, light refracting into tinted rainbows on his hands.

"It's beautiful." Jaebum says, mesmerized by the colours playing across the counter. Mark looks pleased, smiling his toothy smile at him.

"I'm glad you like it. It reminded me of you." He beams and Jaebum's heart flutters even as the grumpier part of his brain scoffs; why would something as pretty as this remind Mark of him? Smiling sheepishly back, Jaebum has to turn away lest his face catch fire and looks up at the bead curtain, wondering if he could put the dreamcatcher on one of the same hooks but Mark leans over the counter to grab his arm when he goes to take a step towards it. "It's supposed to go in your room, it's to give you good dreams." Jaebum blinks like he's caught in some headlights then nods, internally berating himself. Who gets butterflies from someone touching their arm?

"Thank you." He mumbles as he gently sets the dreamcatcher onto the counter, nudging the pieces of glass towards the wire body. Mark just waves a hand with a broad smile and digs about in his bag again. The next thing he removes is smaller, a palm-sized box of plain black plastic which he opens to reveal a ring of pale silver metal, just about big enough to be a bracelet but with no apparent way to make it big enough to get it over a hand, or a human one anyway.

"This little piece I found on a derelict Chyrn ship." Jaebum takes the box, carefully picks the ring out. It's lighter than silver would be and there are delicate engravings, looping lines and graceful swirls, covering the inside and outside of it; it's beautiful too.

"I'll have to show B'kyt." He murmurs, placing it back onto the velvet and snapping the box shut. Nodding, Mark is already digging through his bag again.

"Make sure he pays you for it though." He says with a wink but Jaebum's heart just sinks a little; he can't afford not to. Trying to keep that off his face, he puts the box next to the dreamcatcher and turns his attention to the rest of Mark's haul. There's quite a lot: a couple of carved animal sculptures, a large handful of wires and bolts and other assorted debris, several empty but remarkably small and well-made glass bottles and a whole matching set of jewellery, earrings, necklace, bracelet and rings, all done in silver and what looks like amethyst but on close inspection turns out to be dyed quartz - Mark laughs sheepishly, says he got them for fairly cheap anyway so hopefully it shouldn't matter. He also compliments Jaebum's eye for spotting it, which makes the blush which had almost fully died down flare right back up again.

"It's nothing, this is literally my job." He stammers in protest but Mark won't hear it, flaps a disapproving hand at him while the other continues rummaging.

"Well it just proves how good you are at your job then, doesn't it?" He sticks his tongue out at him, daring him to protest more, which he doesn't, just sighs and scratches the back of his neck, insides a writhing mess of embarrassment and some small bit of pride.

The final piece Mark withdraws from his bag is the largest, a bundle about the diameter of a dinner plate wrapped in a dark navy cloth. Gently he sets it on the counter, carefully unwraps it to reveal a dark wooden doorstop carved into the shape of a Terran cat curled up asleep. The face is detailed in faded black paint and the tip of its ears and of the tail curling around itself is a chipped white and Jaebum finds himself remembering the little tabby cat he and his parents used to have when he was a child, how it would curl up exactly like that and probably not much bigger, but how it was huge on his eight-year-old self's lap. He traces a finger over its ears, a smile coming unbidden to his face at the memories; if only he could afford it, he'd get a cat again. Maybe three. It wouldn't be hard to find a cat either; a lot of pets came with their human owners during the Flight and most of them became incredibly popular with numerous species, so they're relatively easy to find.

Mark's just watching him silently when he comes out of memory lane and finally looks up but there's a wondrous, almost adoring look on his face that makes Jaebum want to curl up and hide until his heart stops threatening to beat out of his chest. Looking at him doesn't even make him stop either, he just smiles at him with the softest eyes and Jaebum has to look away, chewing on his lip with his breath coming unevenly. Scrambling for something to say, Jaebum's eyes happen to fall on the datapad and he grabs it, holding it as tightly as he can.

"Oh, you, um, you probably want what I owe you for the stuff you brought last time!" He blurts, tapping through apps to get to the banking one; he ends up opening and closing about four incorrect ones with how hard his hands are shaking but he eventually finds the right one and types the right numbers and holds the pad out. Expression a combination of disappointment and endearment that Jaebum doesn't want to examine too closely right now, Mark holds his bracelet over the sensor and the pad chimes its cheerful confirmation. Jaebum snatches the pad back and taps through all the notifications and warnings saying he's now a couple of hundred bits short of where he needs to be to pay his bills in a tenday and a half, ignores the wave of light-headedness that comes over him at the thought of not making his rent, just steadies himself against the counter and arranges his mouth into an approximation of a smile in Mark's general direction.

"Are you alright?" Comes the soft question and a gentle touch to the back of the hand white-knuckled on the countertop. He nods, not trusting his voice, staring blankly at the bright red bank balance mocking him on the lockscreen of his datapad. "Are you sure?" Mark asks dubiously. Sighing sharply through his nose, Jaebum locks the datapad and puts it down, forces a proper smile.

"I'm fine." He says, proud that it barely trembles. Eyebrows pinched, Mark doesn't look convinced but he takes the hint and drops it, slowly pulls his hand back and tucks it into the pockets of his jeans, picking up the rucksack with the other and slinging over his shoulder. Jaebum looks down again, catches sight of the time on his bracelet. "I'm sorry, I need to get dressed and open the shop up." He mumbles stiffly, once again incredibly conscious of his ratty pyjamas and messy hair. Mark probably wakes up looking perfect, he thinks glumly, he's never even seen him with a hair out of place.

"Oh, um, of course," he laughs sheepishly, "I'll see you soon?" It's phrased like a question and Jaebum risks a glance at him to see he's staring at him hopefully.

"Of course." He echoes quietly and Mark nods, waves at him as he quickly slips into the back in a ripple of chiming crystals. Ducking into his tiny bathroom, he waits against the door for the buzz of his bracelet signalling Mark's left, then heaves a long sigh and trudges to the shower.

 

It's afternoon when Jinyoung swans through the door, one of Jackson's jackets covering his fluffy sweater. He picks through a couple of shelves of second hand books while Jaebum finishes ringing up a purchase of datapad parts for the Xandoran whose translator had been on the fritz, that and the couple of other sales he's made today inching his bank balance closer to the black.

"Why did you tell Mark I've been overworking myself?" He demands the second the Xandoran bustles through the door, startling Jinyoung into nearly dropping the trashy romance novel he'd been studying. He quickly recovers, slots the book back into place with a scoff and rounds on Jaebum with his hands on his hips.

"Because it's true?" Jaebum grits his teeth. "And you never listen to me, so I thought you might listen to Mark." However true that might be, Jaebum really doesn't appreciate being talked about behind his back, says as much to Jinyoung who barks an incredulous laugh. "I wouldn't have to if you just took care of yourself!" He snaps, strides over to Jaebum to prod him in the chest. "I know you have bills to pay, but it doesn't matter how much money you have if you end up in medical having collapsed from exhaustion!" Jinyoung's face softens when Jaebum looks away with a frown. “I’m just worried about you Jaebum. So is Mark and so is Jackson and so are all your other friends." Jaebum folds his arms, guilt creeping in on his indignation, but he shakes his head.

"You worry about me too much." He grumbles around the slight lump in his throat, kicking at the floor but Jinyoung just rolls his eyes and punches him lightly in the arm.

"Idiot." He says fondly and Jaebum smiles slightly, slings an arm around Jinyoung's shoulders to hug him briefly to his side in a silent show of begrudging gratitude on his way past to the boxes he forgot to move into the back earlier, only to turn right back around to find the trolley he knows he has somewhere; he'll put his back out if he keeps lugging them around by hand. "What are those? They look important." Jinyoung says when he comes back through from the back, pushing the trolley in front of him.

"I don't really know, Naze sent them to me." He says as he adjusts the trolley under the boxes and lifts them up, slowly wheeling them through to the back in a flurry of chiming. "I don't really have time to sort through them at the moment though." He mumbles to himself, rubbing the back of his neck. Jinyoung doesn't answer, probably didn't hear him, is in fact looking at him curiously when he emerges through the bead curtain. "I'll sort them out later." Is all he says and Jinyoung nods, hugs his jacket closer to himself. "Are you alright?" Jaebum asks, eyeing the jacket that's too big for him in the shoulders but a little too short in terms of length. Heaving a sigh, he nods with a wan smile.

"Yeah, I just miss Jackson. He called last night to say it'll be another four tendays before he can visit." He zips the jacket all the way up to his chin and hunches his shoulders, burying his nose into the collar. "I mean, it's actually a bit sooner than he originally thought but still. Seems like a long time." His voice is muffled into the jacket. Jaebum nods, knowing that lonely feeling well.

"Couldn't you go visit him?" He asks, tries not to sound as down as he feels. If only he could even speak to Mark while he's gone, let alone visit him. Perking up a bit, Jinyoung pulls the collar down from his mouth and looks at Jaebum in surprise. "Did that never occur to you?" Just managing to hold back a laugh, Jaebum watches Jinyoung turn a little red and fold his arms sulkily.

"Shut up." He snips, holding his head up haughtily. Jaebum raises his hands in surrender but his shoulders are shaking with silent laughter. Jinyoung huffs and turns on his heel, ears bright red as he stalks out of the shop with a rude gesture over his shoulder. A couple of Staraman in brightly coloured robes bustle in after him, chattering between them in stilted Common interspersed with slang Jaebum doesn't recognise; he plasters on his customer service smile and leans against the counter as they start to pick through the bookshelf.

 

It's been a rough couple of days. Despite a fair amount of business, Jaebum's still not got enough money to make his rent since his datapad had chosen exactly the worst tenday possible to irreparably stop working and even getting the cheapest workable model he could, it had still cost two hundred bits to replace it. He's had no time to go through the boxes Naze gave him, Mark hasn't been to see him and Jinyoung's been conspicuously avoiding him because he's apparently arranged a trip down to Farla to visit Jackson according to Hoseok's messages and doesn't want to rub it in.

He's sat at his work desk in the back with his head in his hands staring down at the blinking red balance on his new datapad's lockscreen when his bracelet buzzes. Tiredly hauling himself to his feet, he clicks the screen off and take the datapad with him through the curtain to see Mark walking towards him with a determined look on his face.

"I'm going down to Farla with Jinyoung to visit Jackson next tenday and you should come with us." He says without preamble. Jaebum takes a deep breath, slowly puts the datapad on the counter with a click.

"I can't." He says shortly. "I have to work." He's done the maths; if he works every day up to the rent due date and doesn't pay for anything else, including food unfortunately, he should just be able to make it. He should be fine, he's got some stuff left and he's used to running on fumes. Mark stares up at him sadly; Jaebum has to look away from the puppy eyes, not wanting to see him disappointed.

"You need to take a break, Jaebum." He says, almost pleading. Jaebum folds his arms, fists his hands in his armpits.

"I can't afford it." He bites out, a hot rush of shame reddening his cheeks. Mark reaches over to touch his arm but he pulls away from it, shakes his head, keeps his eyes steadfastly on the floor.

"I can pay for it?" He asks tentatively. Jaebum's hackles raise and he bites his tongue, tries to think out a measured response because he knows Mark means well but can't help a hot mixture of mortification and wounded pride bubbling in his chest and threatening to spill viciously out of his mouth.

"No. Thank you." He says carefully. "I just can't take any time off at the moment. I need the money." The words feel like acid in his throat. Mark drops his hand.

"You know, if you need some help-"

"I don't-" so much for not being able to snap at Mark- "need any help." He reins himself in, nails biting hard into his palms. "I can sort it. I'm fine. Just leave it." He doesn't dare look at Mark, stares blindly at the rough fake concrete floor. Mark takes a couple of slow breaths then steps to the side so his shoes are in Jaebum's field of view.

"Is this really about money or is it just that you're scared of leaving the station?" He asks sharply and the question startles Jaebum into looking up at him with wide eyes; his jaw is set and he looks as determined as when he came in. Jaebum huffs an incredulous laugh; doesn't Mark know him better than that?

"I want nothing more than to leave this station, Mark, you know that," he snaps, voice wavering only slightly around the sorrow at that fact choking his throat, "but if I left, I'd have nothing to come back to." It makes him want to scream at the simulated sky that he can't but that's just life. "I can't come with you anywhere, even Farla. Maybe I'll never be able to. So just, stop asking me, alright?" He says it without thinking, frustration bubbling over and he immediately regrets it because he doesn't want Mark to stop asking him, not really; he loves the thought of it, the dream of one day leaving this place and Mark's hope is all he really has left, his own long drained away.

"You don't know that you'd have nothing left." Mark insists, just hammering home how much he doesn't get it. Slumping against the counter, Jaebum rubs his eyes hard.

"Yes I do, I can't afford to keep up rent without income from the shop and I don't make enough to hire someone else to run it." He drops his hands, eyes sore and blurry.

"You're miserable here, Jaebum," Mark says plainly, "why do you care so much about staying?" Jaebum bristles, looks away towards the bead curtain, the tiny rooms beyond cluttered with stuff, half of it not even his and waiting to be put out in the shop.

"This is all I have." He says weakly, folds his arms, feeling more than a little pathetic.

"So you are scared." Mark says, almost dismissively and a red veil drops over Jaebum's sight.

"So what if I am? I'm not like you, I can't just do whatever I want, leave whenever I want! This is everything I have, of course I'm scared of losing it!" He finds himself shouting, taking a step towards Mark and jabbing a finger back towards the curtain. Mark's face darkens and he squares his shoulders.

"Well maybe that's why I'm happy and you aren't! You hate it here!" He snaps back. Jaebum scoffs, drags his hands down his face.

"You just don't get it, do you? You've always had the means to do what you want, while I've never had enough to buy actual Terran food, let alone go gallivanting across the galaxy whenever I want!" He gestures at the door and the simulated evening sky beyond. Eyebrows raised, Mark barks a vicious laugh, hands clenching into fists at his sides.

"You make a lot of goddamn assumptions, you know that? I left my home system at seventeen and caught a ride on a cargo ship heading out of system with fifty bits and the clothes I was wearing! And I did that because I was unhappy there and I didn't want to settle for being miserable like you seem to want to do!" Mark shouts back, sending a cold shock through Jaebum; Mark's never told him that, "I had the courage to try! Whereas you're just a goddamn coward clinging to something you hate because you're scared! It's pathetic!" There's a long beat of silence where they just stare at each other, both of them reeling back from the force of Mark's words. Jaebum can hear his heart pounding in his head, beating waves of shock and hurt and humiliation through his body. Mark's fury seems to ebb a little, beginnings of regret creeping onto his face and black fuzz starts to creep into the edges of Jaebum's vision; he realises he's been holding his breath, lets it out slowly and takes another and another, rattling in his chest.

"Get out." He breathes, nails digging into his palms hard enough to almost break the skin. Mark pales, looks about to say something but Jaebum turns away, grabs the keys sat on his countertop with shaking hands, vision blurring slightly.

"Jaebum-" He starts but Jaebum whirls back around, points at the door.

"Get out!" He snaps, almost shouts and just to cement his utter mortification he starts to cry, sight clearing as tears fall from both eyes. It's both viciously satisfying and the worst thing he's ever seen to watch Mark's expression crumple, but he closes his mouth and takes a step back. Jaebum looks away, stalks over past Mark to the door and holds it open until he slowly walks through it. He looks close to tears as well, tries to speak again, to touch his arm but Jaebum cuts him off, jerks away from him. "Goodbye Mark." He snaps with a terrible air of finality that he instantly regrets but he slams the door, locks it and walks away, blindly tapping at his bracelet until the shutters close over it and the windows. He hits the lights by mistake, plunging the room into darkness as Mark pounds on the door, hoarse calls of his name muffled and distant. Stumbling blindly through the dark, Jaebum makes it to the counter and slides down it to sit against it, curls into a ball, shoulders shaking with silent but heavy sobs.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey so that was sad huh  
> u can yell at me here or on tumblr lol


	3. Chapter 3

The rest of the cycle blurs, time seeming to slow down and speed up as it pleases. Mark keeps knocking on his door for ten minutes that feels like hours, voice wavering and becoming more choked the longer he tries. Even once he's stopped crying, Jaebum ignores him, sits staring blindly at the far wall, the darkness twisting and blossoming into colours the longer he doesn't move, 'coward' and 'pathetic' pulsing through his head with every thump of his heart.

When Mark finally leaves, he does so silently. Jaebum sits there for what feels like a few more minutes before he hauls himself slowly to his feet, taps the lights back on, but when he checks the time he's been sat still for close to three quarters of an hour. No wonder his back is starting to ache.

He slowly trudges back through to the back, slumps at his worktable and drops the datapad onto it. As he watches it, it lights up, chiming its bell tone, Jinyoung's name popping up in the middle. He declines the calls, switches the pad off and drops his head into his hands. Is Mark right? Is he pathetic for not leaving? It's true he hates it here, hates being stuck in a place that's never really felt like home, but what else can he do? Could he really just pack up and leave? But then how could he, he doesn't have a ship and he can't just get on someone else's, people don't _do_ that, not anymore, even if Mark did years ago. And Mark's sure as hell not going to let him come with him now. More tears well up in his eyes and he covers his face with both hands, muffling shuddering breaths into them.

What feels like an age but is actually about twenty minutes later, there's a loud insistent rapping on the door at the front of the shop. He ignores it, wipes his face off on his sleeve and switches the datapad back on. The rapping continues as it powers up and immediately it chimes frantically with message after message and about ten missed calls, most from Jinyoung but a couple from Jackson too and even from Yoongi and Hoseok, all in the same vein asking what's happened and if he's alright. It's a wonder how Jinyoung managed to get over here so quickly, it takes about an hour to walk from his flat to here usually, Jaebum muses vaguely as another message comes through from him, saying he's outside and to come let him in.

"I know you're in there, Jaebum!" Jinyoung shouts, muffled but furious. Jaebum sighs and presses the call button, lifts the pad to his ear. The first ring is barely halfway through when he picks up. "What the hell happened? Mark just called me in floods of tears saying he's leaving right now and won't be coming with me to Farla and he wouldn't tell me what was wrong except that it was about you and I thought you'd gone into medical or something you asshole!" He has to stop to breathe but picks right back up again, "Why the hell weren't you answering my calls?!" He's almost screeching by now.

"Pad was off." Jaebum coughs, voice scratchy and painful. Jinyoung barks a laugh.

"Oh really, was it?" He snaps sarcastically. "Why was it off?! You idiot, I really thought you were hurt or something." He trails off, takes a long breath, almost sniffles at the end of it. "Would you let me in please? It's really cold out here." He asks, less angry now, just worried. Jaebum sighs and taps his bracelet, hears the lasers deactivate and he gets up, trudges to the door. The chiming of the bead curtain, usually pleasant and comforting, jars horribly against the headache battering his skull and his eyes and mouth feel prickly and dry and he feels exhausted enough to fall asleep standing up if only he could - somehow it feels like sleep's going to be eluding him for a while.

Jinyoung's bundled in another of Jackson's coats over what look like his pyjamas, stares at him through the plastic windows as he unlocks the door and pulls it open. His brow is pinched and he looks tired too and he steps in when Jaebum moves aside, lets him pull the door shut before taking his shoulders and looking into his face.

"What the hell happened?" He asks again, quiet but fierce, confusion and anger brimming in his voice. Jaebum opens his mouth, closes it again, has to look away, more tears burning the back of his throat. "Hey," Jinyoung squeezes his shoulders, shakes him side a little, "hey, come on. Talk to me." Squeezing his eyes shut, Jaebum shakes his head, tries to keep it together because surely he's done crying now, but he apparently isn't and Jinyoung pulls him into a tight hug when he chokes and covers his eyes with his hands. He's taller than Jinyoung, he knows that, but somehow he manages to tuck Jaebum's head under his chin, stroking his hair and murmuring reassurances and rocking them gently from side to side while Jaebum sobs into his hands. Jaebum's thrown back to when Jackson first told Jinyoung his new job meant he had to spent extended periods on Farla, leaving Jinyoung alone on-station; he'd spent all night with Jinyoung who'd alternated between cursing Jackson out and sobbing into a cushion all while Jackson thought Jinyoung was helping Jaebum with some stuff in the shop because Jinyoung didn't want to make him feel guilty about the job he'd been so excited to get. Funny how situations can reverse.

When Jaebum's sobs finally peter out to leave him dizzy with a pounding headache and he wriggles out of Jinyoung's arms - quite a feat, he's very determinedly hugging him - it's close to midnight. Jinyoung watches him clear his throat and wipe his now bright red face on his sleeves with a worried frown, steadies him when he wobbles slightly in place. Pulling him into the back, Jinyoung forces him to sit down, silencing his protests with an icy glare and striding into the adjoined kitchen to get a glass of water. He sets it on the worktable next to him and looks around for somewhere to sit; there isn't anywhere, Jaebum's tiny two-person dining table and chairs are covered in stuff and he doesn't have a couch, so he just folds his arms and levels the glare, mostly just concerned now, back at Jaebum.

"What happened?" He demands impatiently when Jaebum doesn't volunteer the information. He doesn't answer immediately, picks up the glass of water and just holds it between his hands, staring down at it.

"Mark and I just- we argued." A bit of an understatement maybe. "He wanted me to come with you two to Farla and I," he breathes a cheerless laugh, "can't." The water is trembling against the glass where his hands are shaking.

"Right." Jinyoung says. Jaebum sighs, taps one nail against the glass.

"I told him to get out and," he swallows hard, "insinuated that he shouldn't come back." His eyes ache with the stupid need to cry again but he finally doesn't seem to have any tears left. Jinyoung heaves a long sigh.

"You idiot." He mumbles but there's no bite to it. "What did he say to cause that?" Jaebum sets the glass back on the worktop, turns in his seat to rest his head in his hands with his elbows on the table and haltingly recounts what was said. Jinyoung comes over to lean on the edge of the worktable next to him, humming when appropriate. He can feel Jinyoung's hackles rise when he stumbles over the last thing Mark said, sees his grip on the edge of the counter turn white-knuckled. They're both quiet when Jaebum finishes, Jinyoung's breathing long and slow and measured and Jaebum's soft but catching every so often.

"I'm going to punch him when he gets back." Jinyoung says, measured and calm and it startles a genuine if slightly wet laugh out of Jaebum. "I'm serious." He insists, expression thunderous when Jaebum lifts his head to look at him.

"I know." Jaebum says with a small smile. He wouldn't put it past him.

 

Jinyoung doesn't leave him alone for very long for the next few cycles, cancels his trip to see Jackson; when Jaebum tried to protest saying Jinyoung shouldn't miss visiting his husband because of him Jinyoung just smacked him on the arm really hard and glared at him until he gave in, then got Jackson to call and tell him it's fine. Jackson hadn't had too much time to talk but he looked as worried as Jinyoung, quickly reassured him that it's fine, Jinyoung can just come next tenday or something, it's more important that he stays on station for the time being. Jaebum may complain about his friends sometimes, but he is genuinely grateful to have them around and Jinyoung's presence is not unwelcome, it's actually really nice to have the distraction, so he relents with minimal grumbling. He also keeps feeling a little stupid, wondering if he just overreacted but each time he does he remembers Mark spitting the word 'pathetic' at him and his heart drops back to the bottom of his chest, even though he knows logically that that isn't what he really thinks of him, that he was just angry and saying what came into his head. Or well, he hopes that, anyway. It doesn't really help.

Still, having Jinyoung around means he can leave him in the front to deal with the occasional customer during slow periods while he starts sorting out the stuff Naze gave to him. The first box is full of odds and ends: old books, vases, framed pictures, jewellery, all from assorted species. Nothing too special, but he's managed to sell a lot of it, enough that he's almost clear in terms of rent with four cycles left to spare. He rings Naze up to thank her again but she just brushes it aside with a huffing laugh, trills her happiness.

"I am just glad they could be of use to you, nestling." She rumbles. Jaebum smiles, hangs his head. "Though I hear from Taehyung you are having a hard time?" She asks, a little hesitantly, clicking sadly when Jaebum hums an affirmative, smile sliding from his face. "Well, you are always welcome here if you wish for company or a helping hand, yes?" She clicks some more. "I do worry about you, nestling." Jaebum snorts softly, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Most people do, it seems," he mumbles dryly, "but thank you, Naze." She trills gently.

" _May good weather come your way, nestling._ " She says, switching to Elassi.

" _And to you, Matron._ " He replies in kind and with a final few clicks, she ends the call. Jaebum sets the datapad down and looks back to the second box sat on top of the third as Jinyoung sticks his head through the curtain, beads chiming against it.

"You speak Elassi? Since when?" He asks, looks stunned. Jaebum shrugs with one shoulder, grabs the box-cutter from the worktable.

"A little, I started learning recently." Jinyoung huffs incredulously.

"Don't tell me about your life or anything." He grumbles but it doesn't sound that ill-tempered. Jaebum shakes his head with a short laugh and sticks the cutter into the box, tears along the tape. Setting the cutter aside, he yanks it open to see more boxes. Lots of boxes stacked neatly together, some wood, some metal, some plastic, all about the size of his fist, probably about two hundred of them in the whole crate if the ones under the top layer are the same size. Puzzled, Jaebum picks one out, turns it over in his hands. The one he's holding is plain, but some of them are decorated with carvings and even paint and it swings smoothly open when he presses the small button on the front.

He almost drops the box, mouth falling open in shock; it's an arrowhead. An incredibly old one, made of flint, tool marks still visible. It's Terran. Neolithic. Incredibly, _astonishingly_ rare. He blinks a few times, even rubs his eyes; this can't be real but the arrowhead is still there when he opens his eyes, sat on a little divot in the black velvet cushioning it. He's about to pick it up but catches himself, slowly closes the box and puts it on his workbench and just stares at it for a moment. A wave of light-headedness comes over him and he plops to the floor, looks over at the crate in utter disbelief. He vaguely registers the buzzing of his bracelet and hears Jinyoung greet someone politely but it's distant, hard to hear past the rushing of his shallow heartbeat.

Fearing he'll faint if he stands back up, he crawls to the side of the crate, picks out another box, this one a pale blue plastic and rattling when he moves it. With shaking hands he pops it open, gasps out a laugh; this one is full of coins, all different shapes and sizes, copper and silver and pale golden. Unable to help himself, he tips some out into his hand, cold metal chilling his palm. He crosses his legs, gingerly sets the box in his lap and picks them up one by one, examining them in astonishment. The first, 1 euro, the second, one dime, the third, 100 won, all examples of old Terran currency.

"What are you doing?" Jinyoung's bemused question startles him out of his reverie and he looks up to see him standing in the doorway, one hand holding the bead curtain aside and his expression utterly baffled. Not trusting himself to speak, Jaebum just holds out his hand, shock morphing slowly into amazement and a bone-deep excitement that has his palms growing clammy and his heart hammering in his chest. Staring at him like he's grown a second head, Jinyoung slowly steps towards him, lets the bead curtain fall in a chorus of chimes and holds out his hand. Jaebum tips the coins into it and immediately snaps the box shut in his lap, sets it aside to pick out another one.

"Wait, are these-" Jaebum tunes Jinyoung out, willing to accept his berating later. The third box snaps open and he lets out another laugh. Nestled in the velvet, blue this time, are three little rectangles, gold with black lines like an old-fashioned circuit-board. Funnily enough, he'd been listening to a podcast about things like this recently while working on other things; they're called sim cards and they used to be used in the Terran precursors to datapads to let the device access a network. He snaps the box shut again, unfolds his legs to lean his elbows on his knees and bury his face in his hands, shoulders shaking with uncontrollable laughter. This has to be the most incredible thing he's ever seen. It's so rare to see any Terran antiques but to get what may turn out to be a whole box of them? Mind-blowing.

"Hey, are you okay?" Jinyoung gently squeezes his shoulder- "Are you- oh, you're laughing." He looks a little disgruntled at that, holds out the coins for Jaebum to take back. Cradling them delicately, he pats around for the other box and puts them back in, closes the lid, face starting to ache from smiling so much. "Is this stuff all Terran?" Jinyoung asks, gets to his feet and offers a hand down to Jaebum. He takes it but stumbles into the worktable as the blood all rushes from his head, vision clouding over.

"I don't know," He says when his ears stop ringing, Jinyoung's worried hands fluttering by his shoulders, "I've only just started looking through it, I- I don't know." He laughs again, feeling lighter than he has in tendays, standards even. Jinyoung folds his arms, eyeing him worriedly.

"Well, we'll find out what the rest is after you've eaten something, I don't want to have to take you to medical because you've fainted." He says firmly. Jaebum's about to protest but Jinyoung just raises an eyebrow and he caves, head drooping to his chest in cowed acquiescence.

 

One meal later, using up most of the stuff Jaebum has left in his fridge, Jinyoung is finally satisfied and agrees to help catalogue both boxes' contents - the third box is just as stuffed as the first. He feels like a kid on their birthday, every single box containing something incredible, even if on the surface some of it just looks like junk. There are trinkets, little sculptures, jewellery dating from ancient civilisations to a few years before the Flight, both broken and whole circuit-boards, rolled up paper money, even another arrowhead and that's just the small boxes; there are larger ones underneath, all neatly slotted together so there's no empty space, containing old CDs and _vinyl records_ , plates wrapped in paper, phones stacked on top of each other, rolled up paintings, even - and Jaebum almost faints again despite being sat down - an intact vase that looks to date back to Ancient Greece, burnt orange with black painted figures.

Surrounded by boxes, Jinyoung shakes his head in disbelief.

"Doesn't look like you need to worry about your rent any more." He says with a small laugh, turning the brooch he's holding over in his hands. It's silver, in the shape of a sleeping cat, stylised in sweeping lines. Jaebum looks up from the vase he can't stop gaping at, nestled in shredded paper and polystyrene.

"What?" He says, cleverly. Jinyoung just looks at him like he's an idiot.

"Your rent?" He repeats, eyebrows climbing towards his hair. Jaebum shakes his head, uncomprehending. "Jaebum, you sell all this to the right collector and you could probably buy the whole damn station." He says incredulously. Jaebum blinks a few times, not understanding for a moment longer but it twigs and he feels dizzy all over again because Jinyoung's not wrong. Terran artefacts are incredibly valuable and he's got the haul of several lifetimes strewn across his tiny shop. But his stomach drops and he shakes his head, looks back over it.

"I- this- Jinyoung, this, all of this belongs in a museum, I can't-" A small part of him hates himself as he says it, but he can't in good conscious sell these incredible things to someone who's just going to keep it all to themselves just to get a better price. It belongs where anyone and everyone could see it, learn about it, about Terra. About _Earth_.

Jinyoung punches him in the arm, hard. "Ow!" He yelps, cringing away.

"You are not giving this away, Jaebum, I swear to god I will physically fight you if you try to." Jinyoung looks pale and furious and Jaebum laughs, raises his hands in surrender.

"I didn't mean give it away!" The colour returns to Jinyoung's face and he lets out a long breath. "I just mean I'll sell it to a museum, it won't be as much, but-" Jinyoung hits him again, right on the bruise from the first one. "Stop punching me!" He laughs, rubbing the sore spot.

"Don't scare me like that!" He yells shrilly but he starts laughing as well.

 

"Stop pacing, you're making me nervous." Jinyoung snips but he's not even looking at Jaebum, eyes fixed on his datapad as he flicks through document after document. Easy for him to say, he's used to negotiating big sales and the legal stuff that goes with transfers of large amounts of money but Jaebum's never had to do this before and the representative from the Collective's culture sector is ten minutes late. Jaebum's never even met anyone from the Collective before. He anxiously smoothes his hair down. "Stop fussing with your hair, it's fine."

"Jinyoung I swear-" The words catch in his throat. A human woman in a business suit has just stepped around the corner, carrying a briefcase and she's looking up at all the buildings, seems to nod to herself when she sees Jaebum's shop and starts striding determinedly towards it.

"That's probably her." Jinyoung's suddenly at Jaebum's side, scares him almost into a shelf. "Relax, it's going to be fine." He pats Jaebum's shoulder, smoothes a crease out of his shirtsleeve. This is the first time he's worn a smart shirt and trousers in about seven standards. It's an uncomfortable feeling.

His bracelet buzzes against his wrist as the woman steps in, smiling broadly at the pair of them. Jaebum feels rooted to the floor but Jinyoung steps forward smoothly, a pleasantly professional smile on his face, offers her his hand to shake.

"Hi there, I'm Jinyoung, are you the one I spoke to?" Jaebum has never been gladder to be friends with a solicitor. The woman nods, beams and takes his hand, shakes it firmly. "Welcome to Lanzhou Station." She laughs, nods again.

"Yes, it's been a long trip, but it seems like it will be worth it." She looks incredibly excited, almost bouncing on her heels. "My name is Nayeon, I'm deputy chair of the Terran committee of the culture sector. You must be Jaebum then?" She turns her blinding smile on him and he nods, smiles back automatically and takes her offered hand. Her grip is surprisingly strong and her hand is very warm, then she lets go and actually bounces in place. "So, shall we?" Jaebum laughs a little, her enthusiasm infectious and nods.

"Follow me." He leads her into the back room, holds the curtain aside for her and Jinyoung to step through, waves awkwardly at the mess covering every available surface. "It's all here." It had taken him and Jinyoung the better part of two hours to make as much of it visible as they could, the pieces in their boxes with the lids underneath or stood open. Their effort is apparently worth it too; Nayeon claps both hands to her mouth to stifle a gasp, immediately crouches next to the nearest box - a small porcelain figurine of a dog - and picks it up irreverently. Jaebum lets the curtain drop in a flurry of tinkling chimes.

"This is incredible." She murmurs, setting the dog down and standing up to pick her way carefully through the boxes. She lets out another huge gasp when she sees the Greek pot, holds her hands to her face. "This is incredible." She repeats, a bit distorted where she's squishing her cheeks. Jinyoung nods, satisfied.

"I assume it's everything you were expecting?" He asks, smiling politely when she whirls to stare at him with huge eyes. Jaebum can relate. He's been having those moments pretty much constantly for the last tenday.

"It's absolutely amazing." There look to be tears in her eyes. "We'll take all of it. This- this is everything we've been hoping for!" She is definitely crying, sniffles a little bit and wipes her face. "I'm sorry, we've just- we've been looking for so long for remnants and artefacts from Earth that escaped with the Flight and we've not been having much luck recently, but this-" Jinyoung offers her a tissue and she takes it with a grateful smile, blows her nose loudly.

"Your estimate from the call..." Jinyoung starts but she flaps a hand at him, holds up a finger and blows her nose again with another almighty noise. Jaebum looks between them, confused; he knows they're talking about selling price but Jinyoung hadn't told him they'd talked about that when he'd arranged for a representative to come have a look.

"I have authorisation to double it and double it I shall if it means we can start arranging transport right away." She says determinedly, chin in the air. Jinyoung blinks, looks a little shocked. "This is more than worth it." She looks over the room again.

"You don't- don't you want to check all of it?" He asks hesitantly. Jaebum feels very lost.

"Well, artefacts from Earth are very distinct, most planets' technology and art have very unique designs to them and everything I can see here is genuine and-" She winks, smiles mischievously- "I am an expert, I know what to look for." She puts her hands on her hips. "Plus the transfer will take several cycles to be properly approved so I can do a full inventory before any money changes hands." Jinyoung inclines his head.

"Alright then." He laughs, then looks over at Jaebum slyly, "so Nayeon, what would the actual price you'll be paying be?" Jaebum looks at her and she smiles sheepishly at him.

"Well, we can't compete with what some collectors could offer you but I'm authorised to pay you five hundred thousand bits." Jaebum stares at her.

"What?" He squeaks. Her smile warms.

"Five hundred thousand bits." Jaebum must need his hearing testing.

"Five hundred _thousand_?" He repeats. She laughs and Jinyoung goes to smack himself in the forehead, but turns it into a pinch to the bridge of his nose instead.

"Yes, but-" her face falls a little as she continues- "I understand collectors could offer you, well, triple that easily, probably more, but I'd urge you to-"

"Five hundred _thousand_ bits?" Jaebum feels like one of the broken vinyl records but he just can't wrap his head around that number. He doesn't think he's ever had more than two, maybe three thousand in his bank account at once and even then only because he hadn't paid Mark back yet. Jinyoung heaves a sigh.

"Give him a minute." He mumbles, flicks through his datapad some more. Nayeon giggles, covers her mouth with her hand.

"Its fine," her expression turns thoughtful, "say, do you often get artefacts from Earth through your shop?" She asks slowly. Jaebum just stares at her, words filtering in and straight back out, too busy trying to imagine having a six digit bank balance.

"Sometimes, yes." Jinyoung answers for him. She nods, sticks her lip out in a considering pout.

"Would you excuse me for a moment? I need to ask the committee about something." She nods politely and slips out of the room, curtain chiming at her passage. Jinyoung steps over to Jaebum and clicks his fingers in front of his eyes.

"You in there? Is that amount enough?" He asks. Jaebum gapes at him

"Enough?" He splutters. "Jinyoung I could _buy_ this place with that much!" He could do it, he could buy it and then he could leave and not have to worry about not having anywhere to come back to, never have to worry about making rent again. Jinyoung looks a touch more uneasy.

"You could _just_ buy it, you would have very little left." He says dubiously but he clearly doesn't get it; that much money could change Jaebum's _life_. "Just, let me see if I can get anything better, I can see if I can talk to the committee directly-" Jaebum's shaking his head before he's even finished, cuts off his protest.

"Jinyoung, she said this is all she can do and it's _good_ , it's enough, please, just-" They both fall silent when Nayeon bursts back into the room in a flurry of chimes with a radiant smile on her face.

"I've spoken to the finance team and the chair and they've agreed," she says excitedly, "we'd like to talk about reserving future Earth artefacts that you get through here." Jaebum has no idea what she means and Jinyoung frowns at her. She takes a deep breath, then continues. "What that would entail is us basically keeping in touch with you so you can tell us whenever you receive a Terran artefact, so we can basically reserve the items. We won't be able to pay massive amounts for them again like a collector could, but we will definitely pay more than you'd bought them for." Nayeon clasps her hands together, eyebrows raised pleadingly. Jinyoung purses his lips.

"How much more than the purchase price?" She raises both hands in an uncertain gesture.

"Well, it will depend on the purchase price and the item, but as a rule of thumb about 1.5 times whatever you bought it for." She smiles hopefully and Jaebum's about to agree - it seems very reasonable and it's always nice to have guaranteed buyers - but Jinyoung lays a hand on his arm.

"2.5 times." Nayeon tenses.

"I can probably sell twice as much as the purchase price to the finance team?" She hedges and Jinyoung's hand falls from Jaebum's arm.

"Alright. We can sort the details properly during the transfer approval period." He offers his hand to her and she claps, immediately grabs it between both of hers and pumps his arms up and down.

"Fantastic!" She near enough squeals, jumps onto Jinyoung for a hug when the handshake is over. Laughing slightly and looking around over her head at Jaebum with wide eyes, he pats her on the back awkwardly. She wriggles free, beaming and bounces over to Jaebum to do the same thing to him; he's almost bowled over, but manages to steady her and himself, unable to stop himself from beaming as well.

 

Hoseok jumps on him the second the door opens, Taehyung just leaning out of the way of him. Jaebum huffs, almost falls over backwards but just manages to catch himself, pats Hoseok on the back with a slight laugh. Lots of people have been jumping on him lately.

"I've been so worried about you!" He screeches very close to Jaebum's ear but he can't get away so he just accepts the incoming burst eardrum. "We had no word from you for two tendays and then you just spring it on us that you bought your shop! You're the worst!" He yells while squeezing all the air from Jaebum's lungs. Wheezing, Jaebum taps on his shoulder to try and get him to ease up, waves at Taehyung for help when it doesn't work. Taehyung doesn't help of course, he's too busy filming it on his datapad.

"I know, I'm sorry," He says, somewhat strangled, "please let go, I can't breathe." Yoongi slips past Taehyung and pats Hoseok on the shoulder.

"Let him go, you can grill him properly inside." They say, just look unimpressed at Jaebum's wheezed thanks as Hoseok grumbles and lets him go. They drag Taehyung back inside, ignoring his whines of protest and Hoseok drags Jaebum after them, pulls him into the sitting room.

"I'm actually trusting those two to cook because I want answers from you so badly, so if they set this place on fire, that's on you." He says over his shoulder, pulls Jaebum onto the couch next to him. "Now spill it, what the heck's been happening with you?" He demands. Jaebum sighs, settles into the cushions and explains the whole situation with the Terran artefacts, how he now owns his shop - it's a weird feeling, knowing he doesn't have to pay anywhere near as much in the future, just a fairly small tax for maintenance of the station and all that, but it's definitely not a bad feeling - and how he's got an arrangement with the Collective to send more Terran items their way. Hoseok's eyes get wider and wider and he claps his hands when Jaebum finishes, practically wriggling with delight.

"That's amazing!" He grabs Jaebum's shoulders and rocks him side to side, then gasps. "Does this mean you'll finally go with Mark when he next comes back?" He asks excitedly and Jaebum's about to agree when it slams back into him full force that no, he won't be going anywhere with Mark and it hurts even more now that he could, if only he hadn't thrown that chance away the last time he was here. Icy waves of guilt pulse over him too; in all the commotion, he'd completely forgotten about their argument. Hoseok looks very confused when Jaebum's face falls, then freezes and covers his mouth with his hand. "Oh, oh no, I'm so sorry, I forgot-" he pulls Jaebum into another hug, squeezing him tightly- "I'm sorry, let's talk about something else." Jaebum smiles sadly, pats Hoseok's side.

"It's alright," He mumbles, wriggles his way out of the hug, "don't worry about it." Hoseok looks so guilty that Jaebum can't help pulling him back into another hug, but one that causes less damage to his ribcage. "It'll be fine. We'll sort it out." He says, though he's not sure if he believes it himself, not even sure if Mark will even come back, let alone talk to him or let him apologise or apologise himself. Thankfully, they're saved from further conversation by Taehyung screaming in the kitchen. Yoongi sticks their head around the door.

"He's fine, he just realised he has work tomorrow morning." Their head disappears and Hoseok shakes his head.

"I swear that man would forget his own head." He grumbles, but it's so endeared that it sounds like a compliment. "So, how's business been since you sent all that stuff to the Collective?" He asks, turning his attention back to Jaebum.

"It's been really good, actually. I've had my hands full." One of Jinyoung's conditions of the sale had been that the museum displays and any articles about them had to say where the pieces came from, this being the old family Naze had bought the boxes from and both Naze and Jaebum, and he'd been getting quite a few people into the shop curious about any other antiques he has.

He'd called Naze as soon as the money had come into his account, offered to give her half since he knew she'd never have accepted all of it, but she'd refused, saying she'd bought him those boxes as a gift and he chose to sell them, so it was rightfully his. None of his arguments could change her mind and she wouldn't let him buy her anything in return, so in his frustration he'd said he'd get them to put her name on the exhibits too and she'd finally agreed. Her business has taken off a bit too, the street leading to her shop much more crowded than usual when he went to visit and buy some more wood glue.

"Maybe you should hire an assistant?" Hoseok says offhand, more preoccupied with the yelps coming from the kitchen, but it's just Taehyung calming down after almost grabbing a hot oven tray with his bare hands. Jaebum sits back; that's not a bad idea actually, considering he could probably afford it now with the extra business he's getting. Though he has no idea what he'd do with his free time. But then he does have a pile of stuff needing refurbished languishing in several baskets underneath his worktable, so he could finally get on to doing that.

"Tae, honey, you're fine, you didn't touch it-" Yoongi sticks their head around the door again- "Food's just about ready, come sit down." Hoseok shakes his head fondly and stands, gestures for Jaebum to follow him.

 

It's only two cycles after Jaebum puts a 'help wanted' sign in his window and a notice in one of the news sites for the station that he gets an inquiry about it; he answers the call to hear a nervous sounding voice.

"U-um, hi, is this Im Jaebum?" Jaebum drums his fingers on the countertop, watching the few people going through his wares.

"Yes, that's me." He answers. There's a little sigh of relief before they continue.

"My name is Choi Youngjae, I was wondering if I could apply for the um, the job you have going?" Jaebum scrambles for a sticky-note pad and a pen, writes the name down; it's human but Jaebum doesn't recognise it. Which is odd, considering he knows all the humans on station, what with there being six including him and Jackson, even though Jackson's planetside right now.

"Uh, sure, do you want to drop by?" He winces, wondering if that's the right thing to say but Youngjae lets out another relieved sigh.

"Yeah, that would be great!" He says enthusiastically and it's Jaebum's turn to be relieved. "When would be good?" Jaebum looks up at one of the many clocks on the wall.

"Any time today, really." He circles the name for something to do with his hands.

"Cool! I'll be along later then!" He hangs up with a click.

"Excuse me, how much is this?" A Falascan in a long coat approaches the counter, holding a black and white porcelain bowl in both gloved hands, three eyes glittering yellow above the mask over their mouth. Jaebum smiles, rattles off the price and promptly forgets about the call.

He doesn't remember until it literally smacks into him; he's stepping backwards, looking over the framed pictures he'd been moving around to check they were all even and walks straight into someone. He leaps forward half a step, whirls around already apologising to see a young human man he doesn't recognise also apologising, looking very nervous.

"Oh! You must be Youngjae, right?" The man nods very quickly, smiles brightly.

"Yeah that's me! I'm, um, I'm new to the station so it took me a while to get here." He rubs the back of his neck sheepishly. Jaebum nods understandingly; the station is huge and fairly complex. The only reason he doesn't get lost is because he's been here so long.

"No problem, um-" he looks around but there's no one else in the shop right now, it's getting fairly late in the day-cycle- "I guess, why do you want this job?" He asks the first question that comes to him; he's supposed to interview right? Something like that. Youngjae's face lights up.

"Well, I read about the Terran artefacts you sold to the Collective and I've always wanted to work with that sort of thing myself. I really like history, I guess." He laughs a little and Jaebum can't help smiling back, his excitement infectious.

"Well I mean, there's a lot of old stuff in here." Jaebum gestures at the rest of the shop and Youngjae nods eagerly.

"I know, I'd really be interested in working with it. You restore stuff too, right?" Jaebum blinks, wondering how he knew that; he doesn't really advertise that part of his business, just puts restored objects up for sale. Though maybe he should, he might get people coming in for that specifically. "I mean, I assume you must, all of this is in really good condition and I can't imagine all the things people pawn off to you must be so nice. You do a really good job." He beams and Jaebum feels himself turn pink at the unexpected compliment, laughs awkwardly to try and brush it off.

"I, yes I do some restoration too." Youngjae bounces on his heels excitedly.

"If you'd be willing, would it be alright if I watched you restore some stuff some time? I'd really like to learn how to do it." He blushes suddenly, looks down. "Sorry I mean, if you hire me I'd like that." Jaebum smiles at him and offers his hand.

"You're hired." Youngjae's head snaps up and he stares at Jaebum in disbelief for a moment, before breaking into a blinding grin and grabbing his hand with both of his own.

 

"Hey hey, antique boy!" Jaebum has no idea how B'kyt spotted him in the throngs of people but he hears the tinny shout from the translator before he even steps into the small break in the crowd in front of xyr stall. Xe is tapping two of xyr legs together almost like xe is clapping, the other two wrapping a set of packaged steaks in brown paper. The Falern xe's serving chitter a little, look slightly offended but immediately starts to mutter to each other when they see Jaebum, who tries not to blush. Apparently word has started to spread around the station about which of the humans it was that owns the shop that sold all the Terran stuff to the Collective and he's started to get some curious looks whenever he goes anywhere, which is more often than he used to now that he can leave Youngjae in charge of the shop.

"Hi, B'kyt." He replies. Xe hands off the package to the shorter Falern, who stuffs it into their bag and drags the other away whose now started just full on staring at Jaebum, much to his discomfort. "How are you?" Xe clacks xyr mandibles a few times, crouches to let xyr lower legs grab something from underneath the counter.

"This old bug's been doing just fine-" there's a twinkle in xyr compound eyes- "though I hear you've been doing better than fine! Bought the shop I hear!" Xe claps xyr legs together again, stands up to place xyr datapad on the counter. Jaebum smiles under his mask and nods.

"Yeah." Is all he says but he apparently doesn't need to say anything else because B'kyt bustles into the back, though xe's still speaking through the translator.

"Well, I have a little something for you to celebrate that!" Jaebum starts, not having expected anything like that, only for his mouth to fall open when B'kyt shuffles back in with a large box and places it on the counter. "This is all the stuff you normally get of course, but I've snuck in a couple of treats I had shipped in specially." He crackles a laugh and opens the box to pull out a smaller package and turns it towards Jaebum. He can't quite believe what he's seeing because in this package is a selection of Terran fruit; there's a couple of apples and oranges and a mango and even some grapes. "One of my clan is a freighter captain and happened to be stopping in Sol before xe jumped here, so I had xem pick some stuff up from the stations around your people's home-world." Xe puts them back into the box and closes it back up, slides it over towards Jaebum.

"Wha- I- What do I owe you?" Jaebum splutters; this must have been incredibly expensive. But B'kyt just crackles and picks up the datapad, taps on it a few times.

"No no, this is a present! What's that phrase you two-legs use..." xe clacks xyr mandibles again, legs not working the datapad tapping against the counter, "A present for a warm house? Something like that." Jaebum peers at him for a moment, then it twigs.

"A housewarming gift?" He asks and B'kyt crackles again, more loudly, clapping.

"That's it! So no, just regular pricing for this one, antique boy. And if you'd like more of this stuff, we can arrange something in the future." He holds out the pad and Jaebum swipes his bracelet over it, stunned silent for a moment.

"Th-thank you, B'kyt." B'kyt buzzes happily as Jaebum picks up the box; it's pretty heavy and fairly awkward to carry, but Jaebum barely notices, too wrapped up in his growing excitement over its contents.

"Don't mention it, antique boy, just enjoy your warm house."

 

Jaebum's halfway through putting a Hlafas clock back together when Youngjae slips through the bead curtain, setting off the chimes.

"Um, there's a guy pacing outside." Youngjae says quietly, like he's afraid of being heard. Jaebum sets his screwdriver down, looks at him over the top of his glasses.

"What do you mean?" Youngjae shrugs, eyes wide.

"There's a guy pacing up and down outside! He keeps looking in the shop, I don't know, I was just worried he might try and steal something." Jaebum frowns, pushes himself to his feet and takes his glasses off, sets them on the table. There's no buzzing from his bracelet so no one's come in while Youngjae was talking to him, but this does sound rather suspicious. He signals for Youngjae to stay at the counter and heads for the door. Pushing it open, he steps through, looks around, bracelet vibrating at his own exit.

Fingers numb, he loses grip on the door, barely hears it click shut over the roaring in his ears; Mark is turning on his heel, clearly at the top of his pace but he freezes when he sees Jaebum staring at him. He's not carrying a backpack and he's got a new jacket, a dark navy bomber style one with black collar and cuffs and he looks exhausted, has heavy dark circles under his eyes and a purpling bruise on his left cheekbone. They stare at each other in silence for a long moment, then Mark takes a slow hesitant step forwards, eyes cast down to the floor.

"Jaebum, I'm so- I'm so sor-" He cuts off with a shocked gasp when Jaebum, having practically sprinted the distance between them, grabs him and pulls him into a fierce hug, buries his face in his shoulder.

"I thought you weren't coming back." He mumbles, fingers digging into the cool fabric and Mark breathes a shuddering laugh, snakes his arms around Jaebum's waist and hugs him back just as tightly.

"Of course I'd come back," he murmurs into Jaebum's hair, "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean what I said at all, I- I was completely out of line, you-" his shoulders jerk and his fingers dig into Jaebum's sides- "I'm really sorry." His voice sounds thick. Jaebum nods, takes a deep breath. Mark smells like leather and spaceship fuel, but it's somehow soothing.

"I'm sorry too. I didn't mean to assume- I'm sorry." He feels a nod against his head and they both relax just that little bit more. Jaebum nuzzles into his jacket a little more to subtly wipe his eyes, then lets go, moves back to look at Mark. He's less embarrassed about crying, laughs wetly and wipes his face on his sleeve. "I missed you." Jaebum murmurs without thinking, blushing bright red when Mark grins at him.

"I missed you too." He grabs Jaebum's hand and squeezes. Jaebum's heart kicks into double time and he's sure his hand is unpleasant and clammy but Mark doesn't let go, grin fading into something smaller and warmer, eyes incredibly soft.

Then something beeps and Mark is closing his eyes with an irritated groan and digging the datapad from his pocket, but he keeps his other hand firmly linked with Jaebum's.

"It's Jinyoung," he says apologetically, clumsily typing a reply one-handed but he just tightens his grip on Jaebum's hand when he loosens his fingers in an attempt to give his hand back, "we're heading down to Farla tomorrow to see Jackson-" he shrugs one shoulder, mouth twisting wryly- "Jinyoung could only reschedule for then but I wanted to apologise to you beforehand." He laughs sheepishly as he stashes the phone back into his pocket, rubbing his discoloured cheek. “He did punch me first. Yelled at me for about ten minutes too.” Jaebum snorts weakly; of course he did. Mark grins back then sighs, seems to steel himself and lifts his chin. "I know you told me not to ask any more, but-" he falters, gulps- "please come with me?" He loses his resolve towards the end, cringes in on himself slightly. Jaebum's silent for a moment, pulse thumping at the back of his throat and Mark looks down sadly but tries to plaster on a smile. "Sorry I just- I had to ask-"

"I'll go with you." There's a beat of silence and Jaebum's ears feel like they're ringing and he can't tell if he actually said it or not because Mark doesn't look up for a moment. But then he does, eyes wide and disbelieving.

"You..." He's breathless, fingers tightening almost painfully around Jaebum's hand. "You'll come with me? Really?" Jaebum can't find his voice so he just nods, squeezes back as best he can. Mark's hand is trembling and his eyes are still so painfully wide Jaebum's start watering too in sympathy. At least, that's what he tells himself. "What about- after Farla, Bam and I, we're going back to the Aals system, to Coanor this time, will you come?" He asks in a rush. Jaebum still can't speak so he just nods again; Youngjae will be fine, he's picked everything up very quickly and his boyfriend Yugyeom who Jaebum's met a few times now is happy to give him a hand if he needs it and Jaebum can use the last of his earnings from the Terran boxes to pay off the station fees for the next half a standard. There's no reason he can't go. Mark blinks quickly and then he smiles, a huge thing showing off all his teeth and Jaebum feels like he's falling in love all over again. He lets go of Jaebum's hand to pull him into another hug, burying his face into his shoulder and sniffling happily. Heart fluttering, Jaebum leans his head against Mark's, clutches at his jacket and decides to be brave.

"Mark," he mumbles before he can convince himself not to, screwing his eyes shut; Mark hums inquisitively but makes no move to move away, just determinedly nuzzles closer in fact, "I-" he thinks Mark's shaking for a moment but realises it's actually him, swallows hard, light-headedness washing through him- "I'm in love with you." It falls out in a rush and he expects to feel terrified and vulnerable and it's true that he does, but he also feels relieved, like a weight has been lifted from his chest. Mark's breath rushes out of him all at once and his arms tighten around him and his fingers dig into Jaebum's sweater before he lets him go to look up at him with sparkling eyes and the most breath-taking smile Jaebum's ever seen.

"I'm in love with you too, antique boy." He says quietly. Jaebum lets out a breath he didn't know he was holding, can't help smiling back though his cheeks feel uncomfortably warm. Eye contact gets to be too much and he looks down with a nervous laugh but Mark's hands cup his face and lift it back up, moving closer to rest their foreheads together. Jaebum's hands come up to grasp Mark's wrists and he just holds onto him, a mess of butterflies fluttering in his stomach but his heart the lightest it's ever been, soaring amongst countless stars.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so this is technically the end of the story; the next and final chapter is an epilogue of sorts <3 please let me know what you think in the comments or on my [tumblr](http://jbibbles.tumblr.com/)!!


	4. Epilogue

Jaebum freezes when he sees the shuttle, feet feeling like they're suddenly glued to the floor. Mark keeps walking for a few steps - Jinyoung almost at the shuttle itself - before he notices and turns, looks curiously back at him.

"Everything alright?" He asks but Jaebum doesn't answer, doesn't think he can. He thought he was ready to go, to finally leave Lanzhou Station but now that he's staring at the side of the shuttle, its surface dark and burned, scorched from so many re-entries into Farla's atmosphere, watching people filter into it up the creaking metal stairs, he's suddenly and violently terrified. Everything he knows is on this station, everyone and everything he's ever known and the prospect of leaving, of going somewhere else away from all that into utterly unknown territory is twisting his stomach into a quivering knot. There's excitement buried in there somewhere but at the moment it's drowned out by the gut-wrenching fear.

"Hey-" Mark takes his hand gently, steps in front of him- "are you okay?" Jaebum lets out a shaky breath, links his fingers with Mark's, already feeling slightly better. Mark smiles sympathetically, jerks his head back towards the shuttle. "Are you okay to get on?" He asks quietly, worry creasing his forehead. Jaebum forces himself to breathe in and out a few times slowly, then nods with a gulp. Mark nods back and hesitates for a moment, then leans in to press a quick kiss to the corner of Jaebum's mouth, cheeks pink when he pulls away. Blushing himself, Jaebum can't help smiling, looks down at his feet as Mark starts leading him towards the shuttle. It's still new, after all, they've only been together for a day, but Jaebum's not sure if he'll ever get used to it, to being able to hold his hand when he wants, kiss him when he wants, tell him that he loves him and hear the same in return. It's good.

They get into line, slowly moving up the metal stairs and into the body of the shuttle. It's cramped and smells like fuel and disinfectant and clustered species of all shapes and sizes are strapping themselves into the seats. They walk quite a ways down the aisle before they see Jinyoung; he frowns at them curiously when they approach but he doesn't say anything, just leans his head against the back of his seat with a sigh, already looking a little queasy.

"Do you want to be in the middle or on the aisle?" Mark asks. Jaebum shrugs so Mark scoots in first, plops next to Jinyoung. "Probably best, Jinyoung might throw up after all." He says breezily, laughing squeakily when Jinyoung elbows him hard. Chuckling, Jaebum sits next to Mark, twists around to examine the seatbelt. It's more of a harness, with a lot of padded straps and buckles and he's not sure where to start in putting it on, but then Mark leans over him and starts showing him where to put the straps and buckling it up at the sides and over his chest. Heart hammering at the back of his throat at his proximity, he wrinkles his nose at Mark's cheeky grin and slumps into the seat, slightly mortified at having to be strapped in like a child. To add insult to injury, Mark deftly buckles himself in much faster but he then takes Jaebum's hand again, interlocks their fingers and squeezes gently, which takes a bit of the sting out.

They must have been some of the last passengers to board, because soon enough the doors are slammed shut and there's a hiss as they lock and pressurise, then the engines rumble to life, vibrating through the framework of the entire shuttle. Jaebum squeezes Mark's hand and his eyes shut as they start to move, lifting slowly into the air and forwards. It's dizzying even going so slowly; the closest to this Jaebum's ever come is the transit trains that link opposite ends of the station but they don't fly, they run along rails. It's very different knowing there's nothing under them except air. Not even that in space.

Oh right. They're going into space.

"Relax." Mark murmurs and Jaebum tries to obey, but every little sound, every change in the timbre of the engines, even the click of someone undoing and redoing their seatbelts has him tensing right back up again. It's silly to be so scared, there hasn't been a shuttle crash in more than thirty standards, but the thought of moving so fast in space in such a small vessel is understandably terrifying, plus he's literally never been on one of these things before. He doesn't know how he'll handle the faster-than-light travel Mark's ship will use when they jump to the Aals system.

There's a beep over the intercom and Jaebum jumps, smiling sheepishly when Mark chuckles next to him.

"Please ensure all seatbelts are fastened during the approach to Farla." Comes a tinny pre-recorded message in accentless Common, then Jaebum's pressed into the back of his seat as the shuttle starts to accelerate. He's both grateful and disappointed that the shuttle has no windows, both wishes he could see the emptiness of space around them and absolutely doesn't want to know anything about it. Then it hits him properly; they're not on the station any more. This is the furthest he's ever been from home.

Jinyoung groans, shaking Jaebum from his thoughts; he's pallid, sweat beading on his forehead with his eyes screwed shut. Mark's laughing silently when Jaebum looks at him but he gets another reproachful elbow to his side; Jinyoung's apparently not so unwell that he can't get violent. It just makes Mark's laughter audible though and he leans into Jaebum to get away from him. Jaebum can't help smiling too, tingles running up his arm where Mark's clinging to him, but then the engine noises change, becoming more forceful and the acceleration shifts so they're pointing down. It almost lifts them into the air but the seatbelts stop it, holding them into their chairs. Jaebum grabs the armrest and squeezes Mark's hand, heart threatening to pound out of his chest. There's another beep and the intercom fizzles back on.

"We are now starting our descent. Please ensure all seatbelts are tightened." Jaebum's hands are trembling but he hopes it is lost in the vibrations of the shuttle. There's another groan from Jinyoung but Jaebum doesn't dare turn his head to look towards him, let alone lean forwards to see around Mark, who's practically bouncing in his seat with excitement.

"What's with you?" Jaebum asks, a little wobbly but mostly alright. Mark giggles, leans his head against Jaebum's shoulder.

"I'm just excited," he says with a happy sigh, "I like travelling." Jaebum smiles fondly. Of course. He squeezes Jaebum's hand, turns so his chin's on Jaebum's shoulder to beam up at him. "And you're coming too, so it's even more exciting." Flushing, Jaebum laughs slightly, warmth filling his chest.

 

The shuttle trip isn't that long, only about half an hour before there's a beep and the voice says that re-entry was successful, but it feels so much longer. Jaebum can't relax during any of it; poor Mark probably keeps losing feeling in his fingers with how tightly he keeps squeezing his hand, but he doesn't complain and makes no move to let go. He waves away Jaebum's sheepish apology with a laugh.

"It's fine, really," he winks as he says it, "I've spent standards wanting to hold your hand, I'm taking full advantage now that I can." His delivery isn't quite as confident as he was aiming for, he blushes a little and can't quite meet Jaebum's eyes, but it's enough to have Jaebum turning bright red too and stammering for a response. There's another groan from Jinyoung, but it sounds more disgusted than unwell this time.

"Save it for when I'm not already inches from vomiting, please." He grumbles, eyes still closed. He hasn't opened them once for the whole trip. Mark laughs his squeaky laugh and shifts as close to Jaebum as his seat will allow, resting his head on his shoulder again. Jaebum sighs, leans his head hesitantly against Mark's and wills his face to cool down even a little bit.

The rest of the journey takes about five minutes, then the shuttle starts to level out and decelerate. Everyone starts to stretch their arms, chatter picking back up again. Jinyoung finally cracks an eye open, mumbling thanks to the air and Mark starts bouncing in his seat again. Jaebum feels a little lightheaded, heart thumping shallowly at the back of his throat and he jumps when the shuttle touches down with a small jolt. There are a couple of cheers from some children near the front and a flurry of clicking as everyone unbuckles their seatbelts at once. Jaebum's hands are shaking as he follows suit and he wobbles as he stands up, has to grab the seat in front of him lest he flop straight back down again.

"You okay?" Mark asks worriedly, steadying him with a hand on his back. Jinyoung looks vaguely worried but mostly just unwell and desperate to get out; both of them squish against the seats to let him scoot past. He dashes down the aisle, squeezes past a couple of Aasnan with cameras hanging around their thin necks and disappears down the stairs. "Do you want to sit down for a second?" Jaebum shakes his head to Mark's anxious question, eyes fixed on the bright rectangle of the open door. The last of the passengers sat behind them filter past and with a deep breath, Jaebum steps into the aisle, walks down it as quickly as his legs, which currently feel like jelly, will allow, hand still holding Mark's trailing behind him as he takes up the rear.

He vaguely registers the pilot sticking their head out of the cockpit and saying something in thickly accented Common to one of the uniformed stewards as he passes, but he's too busy looking at the sky through the hatch door. Real sky, pale blue with a few white clouds drifting across it, so bright it's almost painful to look at but he finds he can't look away. As he watches, something flies over them; a flock of birds, or the Farlan equivalent anyway, their calls - a flurry of high-pitched cheeping - just audible as they pass overhead.

"Shall we?" Mark asks gently, poking his head around Jaebum, who realises he's just standing in the doorway with his mouth wide open staring at the sky like he's never seen it before. Which, he supposes, he hasn't, not really. Not a real one. Mark scoots past him, tugs lightly on his hand and he lets out a sharp breath and follows him outside onto the metal landing. He looks only at the steps, concentrating on just making it off the shuttle before gawking at the rest of it, one after another until there's no more metal and he's looking at packed brown dirt. His own breathing roaring in his ears, he hesitates for a second, two seconds, then steps onto the planet.

His feet kick up little puffs of dust. It feels deceptively the same as the station for a moment, but then he lifts his head to see sun beating down on a runway, the grey concrete terminal building bustling with people and beyond that, the tops of red and brown trees stretching back as far as the eye can see, all the way up the sides of distant mountains, thinning to bare dark grey rock and all capped with bright white snow. All of Jaebum's breath rushes out of him and he struggles to get it back, the air cool and thick with the smell of spaceship fuel but underneath that there's something else, something earthy that's nothing like the clean, almost clinical scent of the expensive districts of the station or the cramped warm stench of the markets, something organic but fresh. Something natural.

"Welcome to Farla." Mark murmurs. Jaebum tears his eyes from the sky to look at him, unable to stop gaping. He's staring at Jaebum with that softly awed look in his eye, like he's comparable to the masterpiece that is this landscape and he smiles, tugs on his hand. "Shall we?" He repeats softly. Jaebum can't help beaming.

"Let's go."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that concludes this ~~part? of the~~ story!! this is one of my favourite things ive ever written and I love it a whole lot, so it means so much to me how much so many of you clearly like it too TT^TT thank you so much for reading and leaving me such lovely comments!!! it's more than I could have ever asked for and I hope this ~~very short rip~~ epilogue is as good as the rest of it!!
> 
> thank you so much!!!!<3 

**Author's Note:**

> feel free to leave a comment or come talk to me on [tumblr](http://jbibbles.tumblr.com/) or [twitter](https://twitter.com/jbibbles) if u have thoughts or questions or anything <3 thanks for reading!!


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